This program offers 1 hour participatory MCLE credit, plus legal specialization in Workers’ Compensation Law. You must register in advance to participate.

In a dynamic and diverse economy such as California, employers have deployed various ways to accomplish the core responsibilities of their businesses. This is especially so regarding the highly specialized tasks of payroll processing and securing workers’ compensation coverage. An increasing number of employers have utilized Professional Employer Organizations (PEO) to assist them with these tasks. With this increased usage, complications have arisen, especially when there is a workplace injury, and disputes arise amongst the various potential “employers” of the injured worker.

The prevailing issue that has arisen in worker’s compensation cases is whether the PEO is an employer of an injured worker? And, if they are not, do they have any involvement in a worker’s compensation case?

In a series of about half a dozen decisions from the WCAB, most recently in Rodriguez v. Fairway Staffing, 2019 Cal. Wrk. Comp. P.D. LEXIS 124, the appeals board has begun to lay out the framework for how to analyze the role and responsibilities of the PEO in a worker’s compensation case.

The appeals board, applying principles drawn from cases addressing special/general employment, has clarified that a PEO can be considered an employer in a worker’s compensation case. Moreover, the appeals board has also clarified that even if a PEO is not an employer under that classic analysis, the PEO may still be liable for via their contract for insurance coverage in an arbitration setting.

The upcoming CLA webinar on 7/19/19 will review the framework that has been utilized by the appeals board as a guide for practitioners that are dealing with these complicated cases. Based on that framework, the practitioner will have the tools to navigate the discovery, litigation, and proper forum that will put them on the path to the correct disposition.

Speaker: Randy Pollak