TN: Regular Layoff Intervals Must Be Included in Computation of AWW

A Tennessee appellate court recently reversed a trial court’s determination of an injured employee’s average weekly wage, finding that the court erred in failing to include in its computation the time periods during which the employee was laid off [see Tenn. Code Ann. § 50-6-102(3)(A)] because of the seasonal nature of the employer’s business.  Noting that the employer's layoffs were the result of a market-driven force and they were recognized incidents of the employee's regular employment, the appellate court found that the employee’s lost time was not a “fortuitous circumstance” such that the employee was entitled to deduct the layoffs from the calculation of her AWW.  The court observed that during each of the two years prior to her injury, the employee was laid off for as many as seven consecutive.  The lost time was, therefore, a regular incident of the employment.

Reported by Thomas A. Robinson, J.D.

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance. Bracketed citations link to lexis.com.

See Houston v. MTD Consumer Group, Inc., 2013 Tenn. LEXIS 860 (Oct. 25, 2013) [2013 Tenn. LEXIS 860 (Oct. 25, 2013)]

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 93.01 [93.01]

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