"I'm in the union. Does that change anything?"

What a carve-out is

Labor Code § 3201.5 permits a carve-out in the construction industry. Labor Code § 3201.7 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 network.
• An agreed medical evaluator process that replaces the usual panel QME route.
• An ombudsman to help resolve disputes informally.
• Mandatory arbitration before anything reaches the Appeals Board.

Your underlying benefits are not reduced. Temporary disability, permanent disability, 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 under § 5405 still runs.

The presumptions and penalties — the 90-day presumption, the automatic 10% for late payment, serious and willful, § 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.