Delta’s pay cut to injured baggage handler didn’t fly in court

Georgia treats its workers’ comp system as a “humanitarian measure” to be read broadly in the worker’s favour. That means employers must “strictly comply” with the rules before they can unilaterally cut someone’s benefits.

The court found the July 17 medical report missed the mark on several fronts. It made “no recommendation at all” about the worker’s ability to return to work. Instead, it showed the physician believed the worker still needed physical therapy and another appointment before any return could happen. The report prescribed more treatment – not a green light.

Then there was the 15-pound restriction.

The workers’ compensation judge had explicitly acknowledged that the restriction was “not a change in the worker’s restrictions or work status” but “merely a restatement” of a limit the physician had set at earlier appointments – going back to September 2022, October 2022, and June 2023. None of those earlier reports had cleared the worker to return either.

The court pointed to its own precedent: a medical report used to justify a benefits cut must reflect a “reasonably concurrent examination and determination of the employee’s condition, not a mere reaffirmation of an otherwise untimely examination.” It also found the workers’ comp judge had erred by looking at reports from other medical providers – including a prior release from a different clinic, Peachtree Occupational Medicine – that fell outside the 60-day window Georgia’s statute requires.