The Penalty Program investigates and assesses penalties for violations of the Tennessee Workers’ Compensation Act other than those covered by the Uninsured Employers Fund (UEF) and the Employee Misclassification Education and Enforcement Fund (EMEEF).   The Program enforces several penalties, including:

• A 25% penalty for failure to pay or to timely pay temporary disability benefits; (If assessed, this penalty goes to the injured employee not to the Division.)
• A $10,000+ penalty for failure to timely comply with a Specialist’s or Administrator’s Designee’s order; and
• A penalty for an insurance company’s or self-insured employer’s failure to timely file claims forms; (Timely claims forms are important to the Division as the forms supply important claims information to the legislature for its consideration regarding changes to the Workers’ Compensation Act.)
• Other various penalties.

Click here for a summary of workers’ compensation penalties.

For additional information about this topic, please call  the Tennessee Department of Labor at 615-532-4812 or 1-800-332-2667.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

• A 25% penalty for failure to pay or to failure to timely pay temporary disability benefits assessed by the department is payable to the injured employee.  All other penalties collected go into the Second Injury Fund.
• To be considered timely and to avoid the $10,000+ penalty, employers or their insurance carriers are required to comply with the Benefit Review Program’s Attorney Specialist’s Order within fifteen (15) calendar days of its receipt, unless a request for Administrative Review is filed.
  • If Administrative Review is requested, the obligation to comply with the Order is suspended until the Administrative Review is resolved.
• To be considered timely and to avoid the $10,000+ penalty, Employers or their insurance carriers are required to comply with the Administrative Review Program’s Administrator’s Designee’s Order within ten (10) calendar days of receipt.
• Continued failure to comply with an Order 21 days after its receipt shall result in an additional penalty of $1,000.00 per day.
• When determining whether or not a penalty is appropriate, there is a “strict liability” standard applied.  Either the employer or their insurance carrier timely complied with the Order, or it didn’t.