Stress resulting from a lawful personnel action, including discipline, is not a compensable injury within the meaning of the Workers’ Compensation Law

Stress resulting from a lawful personnel action, including discipline, is not a compensable injury within the meaning of the Workers’ Compensation Law
Matter of Witkowich v SUNY Alfred State Coll. of Ceramics, 2011 NY Slip Op 00454, Appellate Division, Third Department

Three months after Kenneth Witkowich began serving as the Chief of University Police for Alfred State College he was terminated. A day later, he filed an application for workers' compensation benefits, claiming that in the days immediately prior to his termination he had suffered a "recurrence of posttraumatic stress disorder, [irritable bowel syndrome and] anxiety" — or, a panic attack. He subsequently filed a second claim, alleging that the manner in which he was informed of his termination exacerbated his preexisting psychological conditions.

A Workers' Compensation Law Judge [WCLJ] denied both applications, concluding that Workers' Compensation Law §2(7) barred them. A Workers' Compensation Board panel affirmed that decision, finding that Witkowich’s injuries were not compensable.

In deciding the merits of Witkowich’s appeal, the Appellate Division said that a mental injury, even if job related, is not compensable if it is "a direct consequence of a lawful personnel decision involving a disciplinary action, work evaluation, job transfer, demotion, or termination taken in good faith by the employer," citing Workers' Compensation Law §2[7].

Addressing Witkowich’s claim that the stress he encountered as Chief of Police prompted an exacerbation of a preexisting mental condition that, in turn, caused him to have a panic attack, the Appellate Division said that such a claim will not "be sustained absent a showing that the stress experienced by the affected claimant was greater than that which other similarly situated workers experienced in the normal work environment."

The court noted that no evidence was introduced at the workers’ compensation hearings that Witkowich’s position as Chief of Police was extraordinarily stressful or that the injuries he claimed to have sustained were caused by conditions that existed in the work place.

The Appellate Division dismissed Witkowich’s challenge to the Board’s determination.

The decision is posted on the Internet at:
http://www.courts.state.ny.us/reporter/3dseries/2011/2011_00454.htm