BUREAU v. STAFFING NETWORK
6/21/1996
to receive weekly benefits under this Act equal to 80% of the
difference between the injured employee's after-tax weekly wage
before the date of injury and the after-tax weekly wage that
the injured employee is able to earn after the date of injury,
but not more than the maximum weekly rate of compensation, as
determined under section 211.
C. If an employee is employed at any job and the average
weekly wage of the employee is equal to or more than the
average weekly wage the employee received before the date of
injury, the employee is not entitled to any wage loss benefits
under this Act for the duration of the employment.
D. If the employee, after having been employed at any job
pursuant to this subsection for 100 weeks or more, loses that
job through no fault of the employee, the employee is entitled
to receive compensation under this Act pursuant to the
following.
(1) If, after exhaustion of unemployment benefit
eligibility of an employee, the employment since the time of
injury has not established a new wage earning capacity, the
employee is entitled to receive compensation based upon the
employee's wage at the original date of injury.
(2) If the employee has established a new wage earning
capacity, the employee is entitled to wage loss benefits
based on the difference between the normal and customary
wages paid to those persons performing the same or similar
employment, as determined at the time of the termination of
the employment of the employee, and the wages paid at the
time of the injury. There is a presumption of wage earning
capacity established for any employments totalling 250 weeks
or more.
(3) If the employee becomes reemployed at any employment,
the employee is then entitled to receive partial disability
benefits as provided in paragraph B.
E. If the employee, after having been employed at any job
following the injury for less than 100 weeks, loses the job
through no fault of the employee, the employee is entitled to
receive compensation based upon the employee's wage at the
original date of injury.
5. Reasonable employment defined. "Reasonable employment,"
as used in this section, means any work that is within the
employee's capacity to perform that poses no clear and
proximate threat to the employee's health and safety and that
is within a reasonable distance from that employee's residence.
The employee's capacity to perform may not be limited to jobs
in work suitable to the employee's qualification and training.
39-A M.R.S.A. § 214 (Supp. 1995).
Although the Act has been subject to repeated and frequent revision since first enacted in 1915, the provisions of the Act awarding partial incapacity benefits, including the present section 213, have consistently provided that employees must be compensated for their "incapacity to earn" and that partial benefits must be calculated with regard to what the employee is "able to earn" after the injury. Tripp v. Philips Elmet Corp., 676 A.2d 927, 928-29 (Me. 1996); see e.g., P.L. 1915, ch. 295, § 15. Since 1922, we have construed the Act to permit a partially incapacitated employee to receive total benefits when as a result of the work-related injury the employee is unable to obtain post-injury employment within his or her work-restrictions. Tripp, 676 A.2d at 928-29; Ray's Case, 122 Me. 108, 110-11, 119 A. 191, 191-92 (1922). As we recently stated, " he so-called "work search" rule was a judicially created doctrine designed to allocate the burdens o
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