Winston, Milton

Applicant Milton Winston, an Implementation Consultant for Oracle America, Inc., filed a psychiatric injury claim arising from an alleged hostile work environment, with a date of injury of November 1, 2022. The dispositive issue was whether applicant met the six-month employment requirement of Labor Code section 3208.3(d) for psychiatric injury claims. Defendant argued employment began April 18, 2022 (first day of paid work), yielding only 172 days, while the WCJ found employment began April 6, 2022, when applicant received his laptop and began mandatory pre-onboarding/onboarding tasks, yielding 184 to 210 days. The WCAB adopted the WCJ's Report and held that 'employment' under section 3208.3(d) means actual service, not paid work, and that defendant bore and failed to meet its burden of proving the employment period was insufficient. The Board also held defendant was bound by its stipulation that applicant was employed on November 1, 2022 and had not shown good cause to be relieved of it. The Petition for Reconsideration was denied.