“I’m in the union. Does that change anything?”

What a carve-out is

The law permits a carve-out in the construction industry. The law extends it to other industries under defined conditions.

Where one exists, the collective bargaining agreement can establish:

• An exclusive list of medical providers — negotiated between the union and the employer, and generally a much shorter list than an ordinary medical provider networkMPN Medical Provider Network. Your employer’s list of physicians. After the first visit you may switch within it without permission..
• An agreed medical evaluatorAME Agreed Medical Evaluator. A physician both sides agree on. Available only to represented workers, and practically very hard to move away from. process that replaces the usual panel QMEQME Qualified Medical Evaluator. A state-certified physician who resolves disputes. Unrepresented workers get a panel of three by random draw. route.
• An ombudsman to help resolve disputes informally.
• Mandatory arbitration before anything reaches the Appeals Board.

Your underlying benefits are not reduced. Temporary disabilityTD / TTD / TPD Temporary Disability, Total or Partial. Wage replacement while recovering. Two-thirds of average weekly earnings; 2026 maximum $1,764.11/week., permanent disabilityPD Permanent Disability. Compensation for lasting impairment. A different and much lower weekly rate — 2026 maximum $290/week., and medical treatment are still what the Labor Code provides. The process for getting them is different, and so are some of the deadlines.

How to find out if you have one

Ask your union representative directly: “Do we have a carve-out under section 3201.5 or 3201.7?” That phrasing gets a real answer.

Read the workers’ compensation article of your collective bargaining agreement. If it names specific doctors, an ombudsman, or arbitration, you have one.

And ask your employer’s HR for the carve-out documents. They exist in writing.

Why this matters more than it sounds

The most common way carve-out cases go wrong is that nobody realizes there is a carve-out until a deadline in the CBA has already passed — one that does not appear anywhere in the Labor Code.

And the provider list is genuinely narrower. If you were sent to a doctor and told you had no choice, that may actually be correct here, in a way it would not be in an ordinary claim. How medical provider networks normally work.

What is the same

Your right to file. No agreement can waive it.

The statute of limitations still runs.

The presumptions and penalties — the 90-day presumption, the automatic 10% for late payment, serious and willfulSerious and willful +50%, and uninsurable, so the employer pays personally. 12 months., § 132a — are statutory and are not bargained away.

And you can still have a lawyer. A carve-out process is not a reason to go through it alone.

If you are a public safety member

That is a different and much more favorable set of rules — full salary and presumptions that shift the burden to your employer. Firefighters. · Police and deputies.