Under 5 U.S.C. 8104(a), OWCP may direct a permanently disabled
employee to undergo vocational rehabilitation. To ensure that vocational
rehabilitation services are available to all who might be entitled to
benefit from them, an injured employee who has a loss of wage-earning
capacity shall be presumed to be ``permanently disabled,'' for purposes
of this section only, unless and until the employee proves that the
disability is not permanent. If an employee without good cause fails or
refuses to apply for, undergo, participate in, or continue to
participate in a vocational rehabilitation effort when so directed, OWCP
will act as follows:
(a) Where a suitable job has been identified, OWCP will reduce the
employee's future monetary compensation based on the amount which would
likely have been his or her wage-earning capacity had he or she
undergone vocational rehabilitation. OWCP will determine this amount in
accordance with the job identified through the vocational rehabilitation
planning process, which includes meetings with the OWCP nurse and the
employer. The reduction will remain in effect until such time as the
employee acts in good faith to comply with the direction of OWCP.
(b) Where a suitable job has not been identified, because the
failure or refusal occurred in the early but necessary stages of a
vocational rehabilitation effort (that is, meetings with the OWCP nurse,
interviews, testing,
counseling, functional capacity evaluations, and work evaluations), OWCP
cannot determine what would have been the employee's wage-earning
capacity.
(c) Under the circumstances identified in paragraph (b) of this
section, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, OWCP will assume
that the vocational rehabilitation effort would have resulted in a
return to work with no loss of wage-earning capacity, and OWCP will
reduce the employee's monetary compensation accordingly (that is, to
zero). This reduction will remain in effect until such time as the
employee acts in good faith to comply with the direction of OWCP.
