Retirement Date Won't Change if Injured Workers Receive Supplemental Benefit

Massachusetts high court resolved a “civil war” between the state’s pension system and a board that helps administer it last week, holding that injured public employees may collect retirement benefits beginning at the usual starting date regardless of whether they were receiving workers' comp benefits and sick pay. When public employees are injured in Massachusetts, they often collect both workers’ compensation benefits and a small weekly payout from their accrued sick time. Robert Vernava collected both payments from June 13, 2010, to July 7, 2012, after get...