Olivia Pinkney — ADJ12129071

Applicant Olivia Pinkney, a maintenance worker for the County of Los Angeles Parks and Recreation Department, filed a psychiatric continuous trauma claim arising from personnel meetings, including an 8/16/18 counseling session about her job performance after returning to modified work following a prior orthopedic injury. The WCJ initially found the psychiatric claim non-compensable because it was substantially caused by lawful, nondiscriminatory, good faith personnel actions (GFPA) under Labor Code section 3208.3(h). On reconsideration, the WCJ acknowledged he had erroneously attributed a 60% causation finding to the PQME (Dr. Argun) when in fact that analysis was made only by applicant's treating physician, and the PQME's reporting was incomplete and left causation to the trier of fact. The Board adopted the WCJ's report, granted reconsideration, rescinded the 7/20/22 decision, and returned the matter to the trial level for specific factual findings on which stressors were actual events of employment versus GFPAs, and for a supplemental PQME report compliant with Rolda. This is not a final decision on the merits.