We encountered the first floes around Point Barrow, the northernmost tip of Alaska. Much of it was already rotten, as our ice navigator David “Duke” Snider explained. The ice was fraying at the edges. Some of it was covered in sand and dirt from crashing against the coast, while larger floes had pools of turquoise meltwater on top.
A trained eye can tell how old the ice is and where it is likely to have come from.
So-called first-year ice formed during the last winter. It is typically between 30 centimeters (1 foot) and 150 centimeters (5 feet) thick. First-year ice can pose a threat to regular ships but heavy vessels with hardened hulls, such as the MSV Nordica, can slice right through it with only a dull thud and a rumble as debris rolls along the underside of the hull.
Once it survives a summer melt — typically the cut-off date is Oct. 1 — it becomes second-year ice. As ice grows older, the sea salt leeches out and it becomes denser. Being able to spot such ice is key as it is harder and more of a hazard than younger ice.
The toughest sea ice is called multi-year ice and it can grow several meters thick, with the consistency of concrete. As a general rule, the older ice gets the more it turns blue and acquires mounds — so-called hummocks — on top from years of crashing into other floes.
Today’s post was shared by Jon L Gelman and comes from workers-compensation.blogspot.com
The newly initiated litigation by public entities against Big Pharma may prove to be a huge boost to the workers’ compensation system. The lawsuits have the potential curtailing a massive drain of benefit dollars and may provide for subrogation as a result of the nations’ opioid epidemic.
At a recent NJ State Bar Association meeting in May 2017 Atlantic City, Mark B. Zurulnik, an attorney who specializes in workers’ compensation law, referred to the potential of a such a lawsuit.
NPR reported today that, "A wave of litigation by state attorneys general against the biggest opioid manufacturers and distributors feels reminiscent of lawsuits brought by states in the 1990s against the tobacco industry." Click here to read the entire NPR report.
Third party litigation can impact workers’ compensation programs in multiple ways. Historically, both the tobacco and asbestos litigation curtailed the use of the hazardous products going forward. Subrogation is yet another situation though. It requires the ability of the parties to establish specific liens. While this was easily done in asbestos occupational exposure litigation, it was much more difficult to seek individual reimbursement or set-off in claims caused by or complicated by tobacco use in the workplace.
Notwithstanding the public entity, opioid litigation is yet another social cause that may, in fact, improve the lives of injured workers and in the long run provide tremendous benefits to both employers and their…
The Port U series is free and open to adults, 18 years and older. Advance reservations are required. Priority will be given to first-time Port U registrants.
Get the inside scoop on the many functions of the Port of Seattle by taking a free tour! Each tour is guided by Port partners and provides detailed knowledge of the history, current usage and future plans for the Port’s holdings. Causey Wright has had several staff attend these tours to better understand the workplaces our clients go to every day. I’ve included a link to our blog posts describing the tours.
The 5-mile-long Duwamish Waterway is important for commerce and jobs, fish and wildlife habitat, and public shoreline use areas. Learn about marine industrial commerce, the legacy of past industrial activities, fish and wildlife habitat restoration, and Superfund cleanup plans.
Partners: Alaska Marine Lines, Boeing, Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition, and the Environmental Protection Agency
Sea-Tac Airport is the 9th busiest U.S. airport. Learn about upcoming projects including the new International Arrivals Facility, the modernization of the North Satellite and Sea-Tac’s master planning effort that will define redevelopment over the next 20 years.
Learn about the wide range of maritime industry businesses and support services that play a key role in making Seattle a focal point for commercial fishing, boat yards, and transportation between Alaska and the Lower 48 states. The Lake Washington Ship Canal is a bustling center of maritime activity.
Partners: Ballard Oil, Pacific Fishermen Shipyard, Washington Maritime Federation, NOAA Fisheries, American Waterways Operators, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Seattle Maritime Academy.
Tour Terminal 18 and learn about the movement of cargo from ship to truck to train. Hear longshore workers, and stevedores describe their roles in the supply chain and visit the BNSF intermodal rail yard to learn how shipping containers move between the port and the interior of the country.
Partners: SSA Terminals, BNSF Railway, International Longshore and Warehouse Union SHIP
Today’s post was shared by Jon L Gelman and comes from www.propublica.org
After Yuliana Rocha Zamarripa hurt her knee at work, an investigator working for her employer’s insurance carrier reported her for using a false Social Security number. (Scott McIntyre for ProPublica)
At age 31, Nixon Arias cut a profile similar to many unauthorized immigrants in the United States. A native of Honduras, he’d been in the country for more than a decade and had worked off and on for a landscaping company for nine years. The money he earned went to building a future for his family in Pensacola, Florida. His Facebook page was filled with photos of fishing and other moments with his three boys, ages 3, 7 and 8.
But in November 2013, that life began to unravel.
The previous year, Arias had been mowing the median of Highway 59 just over the Alabama line when his riding lawnmower hit a hole, throwing him into the air. He slammed back in his seat, landing hard on his lower back.
Arias received pain medication, physical therapy and steroid injections through his employer’s workers’ compensation insurance. But the pain in his back made even walking or sitting a struggle. So his doctor recommended an expensive surgery to implant a device that sends electrical pulses to the spinal cord to relieve chronic pain. Six days after that appointment, the insurance company suddenly discovered that Arias had been using a deceased man’s Social Security number and rejected not only the surgery, but all of his past and future care.
Today’s post was shared by APImages.com and comes from apimagesblog.com
Mexico City floating farms, chefs team up to save tradition
At dawn in Xochimilco, home to Mexico City’s famed floating gardens, farmers in muddied rain boots squat among rows of beets as a group of chefs arrive to sample sweet fennel and the pungent herb known as epazote.
By dinnertime some of those greens will be on plates at an elegant bistro 12 miles (20 kilometers) to the north, stewed with black beans in a $60 prix-fixe menu for well-heeled diners.
Call it floating-farm-to-table: A growing number of the capital’s most in-demand restaurants are incorporating produce grown at the gardens, or chinampas, using ancient cultivation techniques pioneered hundreds of years ago in the pre-Columbian era.
While sourcing local ingredients has become fashionable for many top chefs around the globe, it takes on additional significance in Xochimilco (so-chee-MIL-co), where a project linking chinampa farmers with high-end eateries aims to breathe life and a bit of modernity into a fading and threatened tradition.
“People sometimes think (farm-to-table) is a trend,” said Eduardo Garcia, owner and head chef of Maximo Bistrot in the stylish Roma Norte district. “It’s not a trend. It’s something that we humans have always done and we need to keep doing it, we need to return to it.”
Xochimilco, on the far southern edge of Mexico City, is best-known as the “Mexican Venice” for its canals and brightly colored boats where locals and…
An effort to bring small farms in Washington State together with people who want to learn farming is expanding to 20 counties across the state.
The Farm Internship Project, overseen by the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries, began in 2010 as a pilot project. Four years later, it grew to 16 counties. A new law that takes effect this week (July 23) adds Clark, Cowlitz, Lewis, and Walla Walla counties and extends the project to Dec. 31, 2019.
Gov. Jay Inslee highlighted the need to educate a new generation of farmers when he signed HB 1906 that expanded the effort.
“Farm internships are great ways for farmers to mentor young people with an interest in this field — and keep food on our tables,” said Gov. Inslee.
A farmer who lobbied for the bill highlighted the need for more farmers.
“It’s important for more farms to reap the benefits of the project,” said Julie Gullett, of Seedpod Farm in Centralia. “We are losing the knowledge of elder farmers as they retire, and fewer folks are entering farming.”
Farms with annual sales of less than $250,000 per year may participate in the project. The benefits for farmers include receiving help from up to three interns per year; the interns being exempt from wage requirements and employment security; knowing and ensuring that vital knowledge is being passed on to a new generation of farmers.
“We want to ensure a quality learning experience for participants while making it easy for farms to take part,” said Kelly Kane, who manages the project for L&I. “We’re encouraged with this first-in-the-nation effort’s expansion across the state.”
Prior to the internship project, small farms exchanged informal on-farm education for a stipend or volunteer labor. This put both farms and workers at risk because of the lack of insurance to protect against injury. Under the project, interns have workers’ compensation protection along with the opportunity for a valuable education and hands-on experience in farming activities.
Today’s post was shared by Jon L Gelman and comes from www.pbs.org
HARI SREENIVASAN, PBS NEWSHOUR WEEKEND ANCHOR: Truck drivers are a crucial link in the supply chain of getting imported goods from ports to stores. An investigative report by “USA Today” shows those drivers work long hours for low pay, all while being heavily in debt from leasing their trucks. The story, “Rigged,” published yesterday, recounts how at least 140 truck companies in southern California have been accused of labor violations, and forcing truckers into working conditions akin to indentured servitude.
The article’s author, Brett Murphy, joins me from Naples, Florida, to discuss the story. Tell us what’s happening to these truckers?
BRETT MURPHY, USA TODAY: Well, the companies found a loophole in the labor law. By calling these guys independent contractors instead of employees, no real rules apply. They can kind of do whatever they want — or they think they can.
So, what they’ve been able to do was sort of find a large population of truck drivers, mostly immigrants, about 16,000 immigrant drivers. And when the state told these companies that they had to use newer, cleaner trucks, instead of paying for it themselves, they came up with this idea of lease-to-own contracts, lease-to-own agreements.
And when the drivers came into work one day, just like they had been for decades, the company said, if you want to keep your job here, if you want to keep driving, you need to sign this contract. They didn’t translate it….
SHELTON, WA — A roofer who was criminally charged twice in 13 months for working illegally as a contractor has been sentenced to 15 days behind bars.
Peter Daniel Yeaman, 57, pleaded guilty Thursday in Mason County District Court to a gross misdemeanor charge of unregistered contracting. Judge Victoria Meadows imposed the jail time, and ordered Yeaman to pay $1,000 in penalties and repay his victim $5,000.
The judge required Yeaman to begin serving the jail time no later than Aug. 9. If Yeaman doesn’t comply with the sentence or commits a crime in the next two years, he could face up to 349 more days in jail.
This is the second time the Washington Attorney General’s Office has prosecuted Yeaman based on a Department of Labor & Industries investigation into him and his company, Southgate Roofing, of Belfair.
Cashes check for new roofing job on same day as guilty plea
In the current case, Yeaman was not registered as a contractor when he agreed to reroof a house in Grapeview, south of Bremerton, and cashed a $5,000 check for the job on Nov. 23, 2015.
That was the very same day that he pleaded guilty and was sentenced in an older case on one count of unregistered contracting and one felony count of doing business after his workers’ compensation coverage was revoked. The sentence required, in part, that he not work as an unregistered contractor for two years.
“It’s hard to believe the audacity of this defendant,” said Elizabeth Smith, assistant director of L&I’s Fraud Prevention & Labor Standards.
“This is an especially serious case of someone who knew he was breaking the law for a second time, and chose to rip off a customer.”
In the 2015 case, Yeaman accepted the $5,000 check, and told the homeowner that the job would cost an additional $1,379. He said he would start the roofing job as soon as the rain “let up,” charging papers said.
That was in early December. The rain let up and months passed. The homeowner kept contacting Yeaman, who said in May 2016 that it would be a few more weeks before he could start. The homeowner then contacted L&I.
Multiple civil infractions for unregistered contracting
In the previous criminal case, Yeaman’s company started a roofing job in May 2014, but the owner of that home learned he was unregistered and asked for his money back. Yeaman never repaid him, and the owner hired a registered contractor to finish the job, costing the consumer $4,500 more than anticipated.
Since 2013, L&I has cited Yeaman nine times for unregistered contracting and twice for not obtaining a permit before altering a manufactured home.
L&I suspended his contractor registration in November 2012 for failing to pay his workers’ comp premiums.
He now owes L&I nearly $180,000 for unpaid contracting and safety infractions and workers’ comp premiums and penalties. The department is continuing efforts to collect the debt.
State law requires contractors to register with L&I, which confirms they have a business license, liability insurance and a bond to provide some recourse for consumers if problems arise. It’s illegal to work, offer, subcontract, submit bids or advertise as a contractor without being registered.
There is always discussion, in every state, about the expense of workers’ compensation insurance to employers. It is common to hear stories of corruption and fraud when employer costs run high. This discussion can lead to cries of fraud, usually with fingers pointed towards claimants and often tied into efforts to reduce benefits to injured workers. As a recent example, take a look at the article published on July 23rd in the Fresno Bee, written by Dan Walters of CALmatters, titled “California workers’ compensation system plagued by high costs and fraud.” In the article, Mr. Walters points to Southern California as an area particularly afflicted by fraud, inserting the hot-button phrase “immigrant workers,” as follows:
“Why Southern California? Its large numbers of immigrant workers are easily persuaded by recruitment agents, called “cappers,” to file claims that allow unscrupulous lawyers and medical providers to milk inflated payments for nonexistent injuries.”
Mr. Walter’s statement is misleading and inflammatory. The link provided by Mr. Walters to support his claim of fraud leads to a news piece – not a study – released by the Center for Investigative Reporting on their “Reveal” radio and web platform.
The story on Reveal, titled “Profiteering masquerades as medical care for injured California workers,” published in March of 2016, focuses on fraud within the medical component of the workers’ compensation system. It makes no mention of “immigrant workers” although there is discussion of Spanish-language service providers within the article. The conclusion of the Reveal piece describes injured workers as the real victims of the scams they investigated.
From our experience representing injured workers in Washington State, we see very little in the way of fraudulent acts, by medical providers, injured workers, insurance carriers or employers. In our cases, the fraud we encounter most, on both small and large scales, is committed by employers. We see misclassification of workers to reduce premium rates paid or the failure to provide coverage of a worker by stating they are independent contractors. We see inaccurate data about earnings and overtime provided by employers in an effort to reduce compensation paid to injured workers and even outright lies about the circumstances of an injury to try to keep a claim rejected.
We do, however, see inefficiencies, on a daily basis, usually under the guise of cost management. Claims managers spend an incredible amount of time and energy micromanaging claims, segregating medical conditions from claim coverage, delaying or denying medical treatment authorizations, sometimes leading to litigation with months, or even years, involved and no relief from legal fees or costs for the claimant, even if successful at trial. In most cases, private insurance policies will not authorize treatment or surgery when a workers’ compensation claim is involved until the litigation has been concluded and the responsibility for coverage is clearly under their policy.
Fraud is a problem whenever it occurs, whomever is committing the fraudulent acts. To hear the cry of “fraud!” – especially when peppered with phrases like “immigrant workers” – is a good warning bell. These cries often indicate another round of injured worker benefit cuts will soon be on the table. Watch for more news stories, videos of an injured worker riding a jet ski, and you’ll know there’s soon to be “reforms” proposed.
“The “grand compromise” is just as valid today as it was in 1914, but it could collapse if costs – and the fraud and other unseemly aspects of work comp that drive them – are not tamed. The next overhaul should be systemic, not just another backroom deal.” – Dan Walters
An efficiently run system run with fairness and respect and a focus on a speedy, full recovery after an injury and limiting lost wage earning capacity for workers permanently injured on the job should be the goal of all of the players within a workers’ compensation system. Cost savings and improved outcomes can both be achieved. These goals are best met through broad-based efforts to work together on the full spectrum of issues rather than singling out one or more of the segments – doctors, lawyers, claimants, carriers or government agencies – as the primary culprit. There’s room for improvement in all of these segments.
Employer Rate Expenses and Injured Worker Compensation, by State
The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services issues their Workers’ Compensation Premium Rate Ranking Summary annually. In it, the Department quantifies the cost of workers’ compensation premiums in each state and ranks the states numerically based on the cost to employers for providing workers’ compensation benefits to the workforce.
The Oregon study is focused on the dollar-cost of coverage from the viewpoint of employers. But, the employer is only one of the parties involved in the workers’ compensation world. There are also medical professionals, vocational counselors, and the injured workers. I was interested in how the ranked states would stack up from the injured worker’s perspective, so I looked up the maximum weekly benefit rates for each state, based on information maintained by the Social Security Administration – and made a comparison of my own.
Understand that workers’ compensation claims have many facets that go beyond weekly benefit rates, and that every state has their own system with it’s own set of benefits and criteria for receiving those benefits. This includes variations across the states that affect allowance of claims, compensability of claims, allowance of medical treatment and procedures, provision of vocational retraining benefits, conclusions about ability to return to work or placement on total disability pensions, caps on weeks of compensation paid and a variety of compensation structures for final settlements or awards for permanent partial disability.
My comparison is only of two data points: the ranking of cost per the Oregon study and each state’s maximum compensation rate paid to injured workers. It does not factor in the cost of living or average salaries in each state. It does not begin to touch on the issue of the quality of medical care available to workers in each state nor on claim outcomes, restoration of physical function or loss of wage-earning capacity for injured workers. It is a simplistic look at a complicated dataset.
To see an interactive map charting the results, click here.
To see my tally of the maximum compensation rates against the rankings of employer expense, click here.
In the most-recent Oregon summary, issued in October 2016, Washington State ranks 15th out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, with a cost rate of 107% of the median. The highest-cost state was California, at 176% of the median cost. The lowest was North Dakota, ranked at 51st with 48% of the median expense rate. But, the highest-cost states do not have the highest level of benefits paid to injured workers.
In my non-scientific analysis, Washington State ranked 5th out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia in terms of maximum weekly compensation rates, at $1,313.06 per week or $5,689.93 as a monthly amount. The state with the highest maximum weekly rate was Iowa at $1,688.00 per week or $7,314.67 monthly. At the bottom of the list was Mississippi with a weekly rate of $468.63 or $2030.73 per month.
The most expensive state, California per the Oregon study, came in at #14 in monetary benefits to workers at a maximum of $1,128.43 per week or $4,889.86 per month. The least expensive state, North Dakota, came in at #10 based on maximum weekly compensation of $1,214.00 or $5,260.67 per month.
It is important for each state’s workers’ compensation system to be run efficiently, fairly, and provide the most “bang for the buck” to improve claim outcomes. For injured workers, on a personal scale, this means quick decisions on medical treatment authorizations to allow a speedy and full recovery after an injury. It also means providing meaningful vocational services when a full recovery is not possible to limit the decrease in earning capacity. On a bigger scale, injured workers need to know that quality medical care is available to them. This requires that doctors receive the payment and support they need to efficiently be able to treat injured workers without drowning in red tape and delays.
A well-run system can result in better outcomes for injured workers and lower costs to employers, all the while avoiding doctor flight. It would appear from the numbers that some states are doing better than others at achieving this goal with several that have lower employer costs and higher maximum weekly benefits to injured workers. This is a goal we can all work towards.
