Issuu

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY FIVE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Wednesday, November 12, 2025

Ann Arbor, Michigan

michigandaily.com

FOCAL POINT

Abigail Schad/DAILY Design by Graceann Eskin

Following injury and illness, U-M employees relied on the University to facilitate their return to work. They say ANNA MCLEAN

Focal Point Co-Managing Editor

On Dec. 20, 2024, Marcellous Demps, a former patient-care provider at Michigan Medicine, was working the night shift when he slipped and fell in a dimly lit, wet hallway while carrying a 150-pound portable scale. He seriously injured his leg in the process, reporting severe pain and an inability to walk. Following a 40-day paid leave, Demps was still in pain. Work Connections — the University of Michigan’s illness, injury and disability management program that granted his leave — asked for additional paperwork to extend it. But, before he could receive a full medical evaluation and provide the paperwork, he was put on unpaid, unsupported leave, according to documents obtained by The Michigan Daily. An MRI on March 14, 2025, diagnosed the scope of his injury: a fluid-filled swelling behind his knee and an MCL sprain. In an interview with The Daily, Demps said he was required to return to work April 1, a mere 18 days after the MRI. “My duties required me to lift, let’s say, a patient of 300 pounds,” Demps said. I weigh 200 (pounds), and I have to lift you out of your bed with an MCL sprain — that doesn’t make any sense.” Demps said that by being placed on an unpaid leave of absence, he was effectively barred from unemployment benefits like Workers’ Compensation, which he claims would have helped pay for his continued medical treatment. “(The University) purposely put me in a position so that in the state’s eyes, I’m employed, but I’m not getting Workers’ Comp,” Demps said. “At all angles, they made sure that I wasn’t getting money for being injured.” Unable to either provide further medical documentation

IT FAILED THEM.

or return to work, Demps was fired May 16, 2024. Within six months, he said his bank account was closed, his car was repossessed and he lost his home. A Daily investigation found that Demps is one of hundreds of University employees who allege a years-long pattern of misconduct and abuse by Work Connections, according to surveys conducted by U-M faculty, employees and advocates at the Service Employees International Union. Respondents gave two chief complaints: They said their physician’s medical recommendations were disregarded and that they had generally hostile and bad experiences with Work Connections employees. Documents obtained by The Daily also show that despite a 2021 Faculty Senate request for a reconstruction of Work Connections and several internal, administrative investigations into the program, the University has not taken any steps to implement substantial change. The lack of action has drawn public attention and criticism from employees and faculty. An April 2025 University Record Op-Ed written by Emmanuelle Marquis, professor of materials science and engineering, and Bruno Giordani, professor of psychiatry and neurology, alleges that Work Connections is failing its users. “In 2021, the Faculty Senate approved a motion calling for an overhaul of WC,” the article reads. “Yet, U-M still has not made any substantive change. How many times must we point out the problems? How

GOT A NEWS TIP? Call us at 734-763-2459 or e-mail news@michigandaily.com and let us know.

many lives must be impacted? How many brilliant colleagues must we lose before change is enacted?” Work Connections did not respond to repeated requests for comment, but University spokesperson Kay Jarvis wrote in an email to The Daily that they adhere to all relevant state and federal requirements when administering leave and absence management processes.

‘They imply, though they never state outright, that you are malingering, that you are a slacker.’ “Work Connections collaborates with U-M units on a voluntary basis, primarily for personal medical leaves lasting more than 10 business days,” Jarvis wrote. “Many units routinely provide guidance for shorter absences and other types of leave.” Established in 1998 and operating today under the University’s Financial Risk Management division, Work Connections was intended to guide employees through illness and injury — a mission current and former U-M faculty and staff say it has since failed to uphold. By placing the program under the Financial Risk Management division, a department concerned with reducing institutional liability, Rebekah Modrak, Stamps School of Art & Design professor and former chair of the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs, says that the University has created an inherent conflict of interest.

Follow The Daily on Instagram,

@MICHIGANDAILY

“It’s very relevant … that the University has placed it under Risk Management, because that’s how they’re looking at Work Connections,” Modrak said. “It’s about employees not costing money to the University rather than, ‘Are people getting their accurate benefits?’” In an August 2015 interview with the University Record, Dr. Robert Winfield, former chief health officer and chair of the coordinating body for University assistance programs, said the University was committed to creating a work environment where employees feel recognized and supported in their roles. “Our comprehensive injury and illness services are intended to help them manage the benefits and treatment they need so they can fully recover and return to the workplace when they are able,” Winfield said. Work Connections, which handles more than 6,500 cases a year, offers a wide array of services for employees at the University. Namely, they work closely with Human Resources and individual departments to ensure employees’ return to work is handled properly. After an employee submits a request for medical leave or workplace accommodations, their request may be reviewed by the Work Connections case managers. These managers often refer information to nurse practitioners for additional review, though the identities and qualifications of these reviewers are often unclear to employees. A smaller number of cases are sent to independent medical examiners, or doctors contracted through third-party companies, which the University pays to organize evaluations.

For more stories and coverage, visit

MICHIGANDAILY.COM

While these examiners are technically licensed, faculty and employees have raised concerns that they are not qualified to assess users’ specific medical conditions, given that they are not the employees’ treating physicians and may be unfamiliar with the details of their individual cases. Surveys conducted during and after the COVID-19 pandemic show that complaints about Work Connections came to a head in 2021 amid the return to in-person instruction. Since then, what began as a handful of employee grievances has become an institutional controversy. Modrak said her knowledge of potential malpractice within Work Connections stemmed from hearing stories from colleagues, but turned into something bigger. As a result of hearing their peers’ repeated frustration with the program, Modrak and Silke-Maria Weineck, professor of German and comparative literature, along with other faculty, surveyed their colleagues in 2021 through a listserv about their experiences with the program. “During the pandemic, after we started to hear all these stories, we had put out a questionnaire saying, ‘Have you had any issues with Work Connections?’ And we were flooded with responses,” Modrak said. “(Respondents said) yes, ‘I applied and I was denied.’… ‘I applied, and they disregarded my doctor’s recommendations’.” Weineck also wrote about employees’ concerns in a Chronicle of Higher Education article, alleging that Work

Connections was making the return to in-person instruction more difficult for staffers at the University. Weineck says Work Connections minimized concerns about coronavirus transmission risks, overrode medical experts’ opinions and denied accommodations for medically vulnerable employees. “Other colleagues described them to us as frequently rude and disrespectful, as interfering in their medical care, as being entirely unfamiliar with the nature and rhythms of academic work,” Weineck wrote. “They imply, though they never state outright, that you are malingering, that you are a slacker.”

‘It felt like my job was more important than my well-being’ In an interview with The Daily, Jessyca Hannah, a financial specialist at the School of Information, said she had a medically necessary hysterectomy scheduled in 2022. Hannah says that to make the process of getting her time off approved as seamless as possible, she submitted forms to Work Connections regarding her doctor’s recommendation for leave months in advance, but there was immediate pushback. Hannah said her physician is a board-certified OB-GYN and faculty member in the U-M Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The physician requested she take six weeks off, per the medical standard. Work Connections allotted her two. After the two weeks, Hannah told The Daily she was expected to return to the office following a tiered structure, where she would be in the office on some days and work from home on others.

FO C A L P O I N T. . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 NEWS....................... 2 ARTS........................3 S TAT E M E N T. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM

OPINION....................6 MIC ......................9 S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 0