OWCP Basic Training - 15th Annual Federal Workers ...

Three Statutory ExclusionsWillful Misconduct• The question of deliberate willful misconduct arises when at the timeof the injury the employee was violating a safety rule, regulation,order, or law. Because safety rules have been established for theprotection of the worker rather than the employer, simple negligentdisregard of such rules is not sufficient to deprive an employee orbeneficiary of entitlement to compensation.• Disobedience of such orders may destroy the right to compensation,only if the disobedience is deliberate and intentional asdistinguished from careless and heedless.• Willful misconduct is a statutory exclusion to compensation benefitsand appears in the FECA at 5 U.S.C. 8102(a) (1). However, theemployee enjoys an affirmative defense to such a finding. Thismeans that the burden is on the office to establish that there wasmisconduct, that it was will full, and that the willful misconductresulted in injury.