PAGE, Justice.
Relator Sharyn Hartwig was a certified nursing assistant employed by respondent Traverse Care Center (Traverse) when she sustained various work-related injuries between September 4, 2005, and May 5, 2010. Hartwig has been permanently and totally disabled since May 5, 2010, and has been receiving workers' compensation benefits since that date. Hartwig began receiving a retirement annuity from the Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA) on August 1, 2012. See generally Minn. Stat. ch. 353 (2012). She has not applied for or received any disability benefits from PERA. At some point, Hartwig began receiving federal social security retirement benefits. The statute provides that once Traverse paid $25,000 in permanent total disability benefits, Traverse was entitled, under Minn.Stat. § 176.101, subd. 4 (2012), to offset Hartwig's permanent total disability benefits by the amount of her social security retirement benefits. The $25,000 offset trigger was reached on March 8, 2011.
The parties disagreed, however, as to whether Traverse was entitled to apply the subdivision 4 offset to Hartwig's PERA retirement benefits. Hartwig therefore filed a petition to challenge Traverse's right to apply the subdivision 4 offset to her PERA retirement benefits. Without holding a hearing, the compensation judge granted Traverse the offset. The compensation judge concluded that public employee retirement benefits are within the meaning of "government disability benefits," as that term is defined in Minn. R. 5222.0100, subp. 4 (2013) (emphasis added).
The WCCA disagreed with the compensation judge's interpretation of Minn. R.
Before us, Hartwig argues, as did the employee in Ekdahl v. Independent School District #213, 851 N.W.2d 874 (Minn. 2014), that Minn.Stat. § 176.101, subd. 4, does not permit permanent total disability benefits to be offset by public employee pension benefits. In Ekdahl, we held that the term "old age and survivor insurance benefits," as used in Minn.Stat. § 176.101, subd. 4, refers only to federal social security benefits received by an injured worker pursuant to the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 401-34 (2012), and not to government-service pension benefits. As a result, we held that the offset in Minn.Stat. § 176.101, subd. 4, for "old age and survivor insurance benefits" does not apply to an employee's non-social security pension benefits. Because Ekdahl controls our decision here, we reverse and remand to the WCCA for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Reversed and remanded.