Assefa, Tersit

Applicant Tersit Assefa, a wait server employed by Yosemite Falls Café for approximately 16 years, claimed a cumulative trauma psychiatric injury (and injuries to body systems, circulatory system, and stress) due to alleged harassment and mistreatment by co-workers and management, including age-related comments, racial slurs, and a banana-throwing incident. The WCJ found applicant failed to meet her burden of proving an industrial psychiatric injury, found the defendant's witnesses more credible than applicant, found Dr. Hoffman's PQME reports were not substantial medical evidence, and ordered applicant take nothing. The WCAB granted reconsideration, finding the WCJ never addressed whether the workplace incidents were 'actual events of employment' under the Rolda analysis, that Dr. Hoffman's reports were deficient because they failed to consider employer testimony, lumped all causal factors together without percentage breakdown, and that no medical evidence was developed on the claimed physical injuries. The Board rescinded the F&O and remanded for further proceedings and development of the record.