Whether or not the Utah Labor Commission should have the option to deny disability payments to inmates will be discussed today by the Workers Compensation Advisory Council.

A draft amendment to the Utah Workers Compensation Act could also create a way to deny disability benefits to any worker who can return to work but won't.

The proposed changes to state code wouldn't affect any other benefit except disability wage replacement for those who can go back to work but don't because of their own actions, said Lane Summerhays, president and chief executive officer of the Workers Compensation Fund.

"We are trying to take care of an abuse of the system by a limited number of workers," Summerhays said. "There are about 6,000 disability claims a year. This kind of circumstance may impact 300 of those."

The discussion draft is on the council's agenda for an 11 a.m. meeting at the Labor Commission, 160 E. 300 South.

The council, an entity of five business representatives and five labor representatives, will discuss the idea and decide whether or not to request legislation, Summerhays said.

The draft proposal would require employees receiving disability benefits to show "reasonable compliance and cooperation" with employers or insurance carriers when offered placement in "reasonable, medically appropriate, light or full duty, full-time or part-time employment."

It would also give the Labor Commission discretion to determine whether an employee, who is incarcerated while entitled to benefits, has shown reasonable compliance and cooperation.

In addition to inmates, an original proposal also would have included illegal immigrants and those who are fired because of their own actions. Both were removed because of potential unintended consequences, Summerhays said.

"It was never our intention to deny any worker the benefits they are due because of an injury on the job," Summerhays said.

However, attorney Mike Martinez said the wording "reasonable compliance and cooperation" is still troubling because, he said, it really means "can't work legally."

"They can't legally try to help me get a job, so they cut off my benefits," Martinez said. "It's a very subtle thing they're doing."

Peggy Larsen of the Workers Compensation Fund said the wording is meant to prevent cases in which workers' actions take them out of employment eligibility, such as failing a drug test.

There was another case in which an injured worker who was offered re-employment volunteered the information that he was undocumented in order to avoid a return to work, she said.

"The employer has already said they have complied because they have hired them," she said. "If the employer has light duty available and they are offering for the worker to come back to work and the worker refuses to do that, maybe that's not reasonable."

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E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com