MATTER OF ABM INDUSTRIES INCORPORATED, Employer
No. G1959322
New York Workers Compensation
November 8, 2020
Date
of Accident: 07/05/2017
District
Office: NYC
Carrier:
Indemnity Ins. of N America, Carrier ID No.: W112502, Carrier
Case No.: C877C5173916
Claimant's Attorney: Judith Ramos Meier.
Panel:
Clarissa M. Rodriguez
MANDATORY
FULL BOARD REVIEW FULL BOARD MEMORANDUM OF DECISION
The
Full Board, at its meeting on July 21, 2020, considered the
above captioned case for Mandatory Full Board Review of the
Board Panel Memorandum of Decision filed February 4, 2020.
ISSUE
The
issue presented for Mandatory Full Board Review is whether
claimant was attached to the labor market.
The
Workers' Compensation Law Judge (WCLJ) classified the
claimant with a permanent partial disability; found that the
claimant had a 75% loss of wage-earning capacity (LWEC); and
found that the claimant was attached to the labor market at
the time of classification based on her active participation
with a job service agency.
The
Board Panel majority affirmed the WCLJ.
The
dissenting Board Panel member would find that there is
insufficient evidence to find attachment to the labor market.
The
carrier filed an application for Mandatory Full Board Review
on March 3, 2020, arguing that the claimant failed to
demonstrate her attachment to the labor market with a timely,
diligent, and persistent job search.
The
claimant filed a rebuttal on March 27, 2020, requesting that
the Full Board adopt the findings of the Board Panel
majority.
Upon
review, the Full Board votes to adopt the following findings
and conclusions.
FACTS
This
case is established for injuries to the back and for
consequential depression stemming from a work-related
accident on July 5, 2017. The claimant, a
cleaning/maintenance worker, was injured while pulling up a
bucket of water. The average weekly wage (AWW) was set at
$1,160.19.
In a
Notice of Decision filed on June 21, 2019, the WCLJ found
that the claimant had a partial disability and made awards
from February 14, 2019, to June 18, 2019, at the tentative
rate of $386.73 per week. The WCLJ directed the claimant to
produce a VDF-1 (Loss of Wage Earning Capacity Vocational
Data...
