Santa Monica Community College District Workers' Compensation Program is designed to provide benefits to injured district employees, including volunteers and student workers.
What Is Workers' Compensation?
Workers' Compensation is a state-mandated program, funded completely by the employer, and is designed to guarantee the payment of specified benefits to employees who are injured on the job. The District is self-insured for workers' compensation benefits, and benefits are paid using district funds.
Workers' Compensation Benefits are set by the State of California and are governed by the Labor Code and Education Code. Workers' Compensation Claims are administered by Keenan & Associates, the District's third-party administrator.
Workers' compensation insurance provides basic benefits, including medical care, temporary and permanent disability benefits, supplemental job displacement benefits and a return-to-work supplement, and death benefits.
If an injury or illness occurs while on the job, please notify your manager or supervisor immediately, refer to the Workers' Compensation Procedure Manual for additional information or contact Risk Management at Ext. 8170 or ariass_glaurys@smc.edu.
Serious Injuries
The District is responsible for reporting serious injury/illness which may result in overnight hospitalization or fatalities to CAL/OSHA within 8 hours (or 24 hours if there are exigent circumstances). District failure to report to CAL/OSHA will be subject to a minimum civil penalty of $5,000. Please contact Risk Management immediately to report all serious injuries. For serious injury/illness occurring after hours, please contact Cal/OSHA Los Angeles District Office at (213) 576-7451 within 8 hour of an injury, and advise Risk Management of the call.
A Serious injury or illness is defined as: Loss of a member of the body (e.g., amputation); Serious degree of permanent disfigurement (e.g., crushing or severe burn type injuries); In-patient hospitalization in excess of 24 hours for other than observation.
Workers' Compensation Fraud
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Any person making false oral or written statements for the purpose of obtaining or denying Workers' Compensation benefits
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Presenting false statements in support or opposition to a claim
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Assisting, abetting, conspiring with, or soliciting an unlawful act
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Making false statements regarding entitlement to benefits to discourage an injured worker from claiming benefits
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Making false statements with regard to the Return-to-Work Program
Anyone committing Workers' Compensation fraud is guilty of a felony and may be imprisoned and significantly fined.
**For more information regarding your rights to workers' compensation benefits please visit the Department of Industrial Relations website at California Department of Industrial Relations.