"Good Faith Personnel Action" Defense

Stress or psychiatric injuries that are substantially caused by lawful, nondiscriminatory good faith personnel actions are not compensable, by statute.¹

For purposes of this defense, the employer must first prove that at least 35 percent to 40 percent of the psychiatric injury was caused by the personnel action or actions. Next, a physician must determine the approximate percentage of causation from each causative factor. Finally, the trial judge then determines whether the factors were lawful and nondiscriminatory, and whether the causative factors were “personnel actions.”²

The WCAB has defined a “personnel action” as conduct either by or attributable to³ It is