Court Opinion

ID: 9757584
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 22:48:32.588676+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:41.282212
License: Public Domain

CASTILLE, Justice,
dissenting.
While the employee was on leave as the result of bilateral, mild tendinitis caused by a work-related injury, the employer stopped offering overtime to its employees as a result of its financial situation. When the employee returned to work, she was paid the full salary she received prior to the injury and ensuing leave of absence, excluding the sum she may have made by working overtime. The majority, nevertheless, finds that the Workers’ Compensation Act requires that an employer pay her an amount equal to her salary plus an amount equal to the overtime pay she may have made had the employer been financially able to offer her overtime. Because I believe that this holding leads to an absurd result, I must respectfully dissent.
Under the Workers’ Compensation Act, benefits are awarded to employees who suffer a loss of earning power as a result of a work-related injury. Joyce Western Corp. v. WCAB, 518 Pa. 191, 195, 542 A.2d 990, 992 (1988). Therefore, workers’ compensation benefits are not appropriate where the “claimant’s loss of earnings was not occasioned by [her] injury.” Inglis House v. WCAB, 535 Pa. 135, 142, 634 A.2d 592, 595 (1993), citing Dugan v. WCAB, 131 Pa.Commw. 218, 223-24, 569 A.2d 1038, 1041. Thus, when seeking reinstatement of benefits following a suspension, a claimant must establish that his earning power is adversely affected “by his disability.” Pieper v. Ametek-Thermox Instruments Div., 526 Pa. 25, 34 & 40, 584 A.2d 301, 305 & 308 (1990).
Because claimant is currently earning the same wage as she earned in her previous position prior to her injury, and because the loss of overtime pay is the result of the employer’s financial situation and not of claimant’s injury, she should not be entitled to reinstatement of partial disability benefits to compensate her for overtime payments which are not available to her either in her present limited duty position or in her *496previous position were she able to return to it. Accordingly,-1 would reverse the order of the Commonwealth Court affirming the order of the Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board.