WCAB

A worker’s psychiatric injury is not compensable if it was substantially caused by a personnel action—that is, if 35 to 40 percent of the cause is a personnel action. (Lab. Code, § 3208.3.) In this workers’ compensation case, the worker, respondent Michael Brooks, is a supervising probation officer. Another probation officer filed a complaint with the union alleging wrongdoing by Brooks, which triggered an internal affairs investigation by the employer, petitioner County of Sacramento. Brooks sustained an injury to his psyche and sought workers’ compensation benefits. A psychiatrist was appointed as the agreed medical evaluator, and she concluded that Brooks’s injury was caused equally (one-third each) by (1) the coworker’s complaint (which the parties agree was not a personnel action), (2) the internal affairs investigation (which the parties agree was a personnel action), and (3) Brooks’s feelings of not being supported by his superiors (which the parties dispute was a personnel action). Respondent Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board accepted the psychiatrist’s opinion that Brooks’s feelings of not being supported by his superiors was not caused by a personnel action…