Oregon Administrative Rules › Chapter 436 - DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER AND BUSINESS SERVICES, WORKERS' COMPENSATION DIVISION › Division 30 - CLAIM CLOSURE AND RECONSIDERATION › Section 436-030-0055 - Determining Permanent Total Disability

Current through Register Vol. 63, No. 7, July 1, 2024
(1) A worker is permanently and totally
			 disabled if permanently incapacitated from regularly performing work in a
			 suitable and gainful occupation. For the purpose of this rule and OAR
			 436-030-0065:
(a)
"Incapacitated from regularly
			 performing work"
means that the worker does not have the necessary
			 physical and mental capacity and the work skills to perform the essential
			 functions of the job. Employment in a sheltered workshop is not considered
			 regular employment unless this was the worker's job at the time of
			 injury.
(b)
"Suitable
			 occupation"
means those occupations that exist in a theoretically normal
			 labor market, within a reasonable geographic distance, for which a worker has
			 the training or experience, and abilities to realistically perform the job
			 duties, with or without rehabilitation.
(c)
"Gainful occupation"
means
			 those types of general occupations that provide wages that:
(A) Meet the requirements in ORS
			 656.206(11)(a)
			 for workers with a date of injury prior to January 1, 2006; or
(B) Meet the requirements in ORS
			 656.206(11)(b)
			 for workers with a date of injury on or after January 1,
			 2006.
(d)
"Work
			 skills"
means those skills acquired through experience or training that
			 are necessary to gain and adequately perform skilled, semi-skilled or unskilled
			 occupations. Unskilled types of general occupations require no specific skills
			 that would be acquired through experience or training to be able to gain and
			 adequately perform the unskilled occupation. Every worker has the necessary
			 work skills to gain and adequately perform unskilled types of general
			 occupations with a reasonable period of orientation.
(e) A
"reasonable geographic
			 distance"
means either of the following unless the worker is medically
			 precluded from commuting:
(A) The area within
			 a 50-mile radius of the worker's place of residence at the time of:
(i) The original injury;
(ii) The worker's last gainful
			 employment;
(iii) Insurer's
			 determination; or
(iv)
			 Reconsideration by the director.
(B) The area in which a reasonable and
			 prudent uninjured and unemployed person, possessing the same physical
			 capacities, mental capacities, work skills, and financial obligations as the
			 worker does at the time of the rating of disability, would go to seek
			 work.
(f)
"Types of
			 general occupations"
means groups of jobs which actually exist in a
			 normal labor market, and share similar vocational purpose, skills, duties,
			 physical circumstances, goals, and mental aptitudes. It does not refer to any
			 specific job or place of employment for which a job or job opening may exist in
			 the future.
(g)
"Normal labor
			 market"
means a labor market that is undistorted by such factors as
			 local business booms and slumps or extremes of the normal cycle of economic
			 activity, or technology trends in the long-term labor market.
(h)
"Withdrawn from the
			 workforce"
means a worker who is not employed, is not willing to be
			 employed, or although willing to be employed is not making reasonable efforts
			 to find employment, unless such efforts would be futile. The receipt of
			 retirement benefits does not establish a worker has withdrawn from the
			 workforce.