Medical Removal Protection Benefits

Whenever an employee is removed from benzene exposure based on a physician's recommendation, the employee's current wage rate, seniority, and other benefits must be maintained in the transfer to a comparable job. If there is no comparable job available for an employee temporarily removed from benzene exposure, the employer should provide medical removal protection benefits either until such a job becomes available or for six months, whichever comes first.

If an employee removed from exposure to benzene because of blood-related (hematological) findings has not been transferred to a comparable job where benzene exposures are no higher than the action level, the employer is required to provide six months of medical removal protection benefits.

The employer's obligation to provide these medical removal protection benefits to a removed employee should be reduced to the extent that the employee receives compensation for earnings lost during the period of removal. The worker may receive this compensation either from a compensation program or from employment with another company made possible because the employee was removed.

To learn more about Benzene Safety visit our Cal/OSHA Benzene Safety Online Training web page.