The Division of Insurance has approved a new “payroll” classification code (0012) to allow employers a record keeping method to isolate payrolls attributed to paid, furloughed employees during the COVID-19 business shutdowns. This ruling went into effective on March 1, 2020.
Use of this new classification code is time sensitive and requires worker’s compensation policyholders to notify their workers compensation carriers within the later of 60 days of approval date (July 10, 2020) or 25 days after you begin making payments to paid furloughed workers (that would be approximately September 10, 2020) and provide the following information:
- a list of all paid, furloughed employees, which includes the following, per employee
- the workers compensation classification under which the worker is typically coded
- the employee’s weekly wage
- the dates the employee was furloughed
- The employee’s anticipated return to work date
In order to qualify for the use of this special code, an employer is required to maintain separate, accurate and verifiable payrolls records that also include this information. If separate, accurate, and verifiable entries are not maintained, payroll will be assigned to the classification for work normally performed by the employee prior to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.
According to the Worker’s Compensation Rating Bureau, “paid furloughed employees” means employees who continue to receive payment during a “temporary layoff” or “involuntary leave” and are not performing any work duties for their employer
If an employee is required to perform any duties for an employer, the employee is not deemed a paid furloughed employee for any period of time they are performing duties for the employer. In these cases, the employee payroll must be assigned to the classification applicable to the work being performed by the employee.
Complete documents with more information are linked here:
- WCRIBMA Letter on COVID-19 Nature of Injury, Cause of Injury, and Catastrophe Codes
- Revisions to Manual Rules Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic 2372
