The claimant was involved in an automobile accident in September 2020. She applied to the LAT seeking entitlement to post-104 IRBs. At the time of the accident, the claimant had been employed as a janitor/custodian for 7 years. Prior to that, she worked as a kitchen helper in a restaurant for 14 years. She had an incomplete high school education. The claimant argued that her accident-related right ankle injury, which required surgery, left her permanently unable to perform or retrain for any employment for which she was reasonably suited. The insurer agreed that the claimant had a complete inability to perform her pre-accident employment but submitted that there were reasonable alternative employment positions which she could do with training. Adjudicator Malach held that what constitutes reasonably suitable employment was “employment in a competitive, real-world setting, taking into account employer demands for reasonable hours and productivity. The work should also be comparable in terms of status and wages.” Adjudicator Malach found that the claimant was not physically capable of performing the positions proposed by the respondent, and, based on the claimant’s age and aptitude scores, it was not reasonable for her to pursue a GED. In addition, Adjudicator Malach concluded that the claimant “would require substantial retraining to perform any computer skills which is contrary to the principles set out in Burch.” The claimant was determined to be entitled to post-104 IRBs.
