Criminal Conviction and Disqualification from Employment

In University of Penn. v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Hicks), the court determined that an employer was not entitled to suspend a claimant’s benefits after he returned to work following a work injury and was terminated for not possessing the proper certification as a campus police office. The employer had a policy that requires all its officers to posses this certification and the claimant, who was involved in a domestic dispute, had been arrested for assault, which might cause him to lose his certification. The court denied the suspension, because the claimant had not actually lost his certification and because he only might lose it in the future.