LYNDA REILLY, Employee,
v.
BURNS INT'L SECURITY SERVS. and CONSTITUTION STATE SERVS. CO., Employer-Insurer/Appellant.
Minnesota Workers Compensation
Workers' Compensation Court of Appeals
February 9, 1999
HEADNOTES
WAGES -
BENEFIT PAY; WAGES - BONUS. The compensation judge erred
by failing to properly prorate the employee's annual
vacation pay and manager's bonus over a 52-week period,
and she also erred in including an annual bonus, paid in
January of 1994 for the employee's performance in 1993,
in calculating the employee's weekly wage on the date of
her September 1994 injury. Because the evidence is
ambiguous and the compensation judge did not look to the
proper period in deciding whether the employee's weekly
wage should include annual bonus pay, the matter would be
remanded for further proceedings.
PRACTICE
& PROCEDURE - MATTERS AT ISSUE. The compensation
judge erred in finding that the employee injured her cervical
spine at work where there was no admission to that effect,
the parties did not specify that as an issue to be decided,
and a decision on that issue was not necessary to the
judge's resolution of the matters in controversy.
Affirmed
as modified in part, reversed in part, and vacated and
remanded in part.
Determined by: Wilson, J., Pederson, J., and Hefte, J.
Compensation Judge: Carol A. Eckersen.
OPINION
DEBRA
A. WILSON, Judge
The
employer and insurer appeal from the compensation judge's
findings as to weekly wage and the nature of the
employee's work injury. We modify in part, vacate in
part, reverse in part, and remand the matter for further
proceedings consistent with this decision.
BACKGROUND
In
1984, the employee began working in a security position at
the NSP power plant in Monticello. Security work is
provided to NSP on a contract basis, and, when a new security
service wins the contract, existing security personnel
generally stay in their jobs. For this reason, the
employee was employed by several different services after
beginning work at the NSP plant. She is not an employee
of NSP itself.
On
September 23, 1994, the employee sustained a work-related
injury while employed by Burns International Security
Services [the employer], which had at that time been
providing security at the Monticello plant for several
years.1 On the date of injury, the
employee was working as a First Lieutenant, a managerial
position she had held for about five years, and was earning
$15.24 an hour, plus overtime. The employee was also
entitled to 120 hours, or 15 days, of vacation a year, which
accrued at the rate of 1.25 days a month but which could be
taken in its entirety at any point during the
year. Employees who left employment were required to
repay the employer for vacation that had been taken but that
had not yet accrued by the time of their termination.
On
January 13, 1994, nine months prior to her injury, the
employee was paid a manager's bonus of $1,179.38, for...
