All posts by Kit Case

Focus on Preventing Falls During “Safety Stand-Down”

In the first three months of 2015, three construction workers in Washington state died from falls. Falls account for the highest number of deaths among construction workers nationally and more than half of all worker hospitalizations across all industries in Washington.

Because of the high number of construction-related falls, the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) has teamed up with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration for the second year to sponsor a “Safety Stand-Down.” The work site safety focus started last week and runs through Friday, May 15.

“It’s time to be proactive as opposed to reactive to help prevent all accidents on our job sites—especially life threatening accidents from falls.”

A safety stand-down is a voluntary event where employers take time at a construction site to discuss potential hazards and how to prevent injuries. It could be a short toolbox talk, refresher training, reviewing safety bulletins or watching a safety video.

“Fatal falls are preventable but it takes a dedicated effort by employers and workers to make it an important part of every workplace safety plan,” said Anne Soiza, assistant director for L&I’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health. “We’re asking all construction employers to pause in their workday and talk with their workers about preventing these tragedies.”

As part of the effort, L&I sent educational materials to all construction employers, is running bus ads in several communities, and is promoting the event through social media.

Construction is really picking up in our state, so it’s more important than ever to reinforce the importance of fall prevention, according to John Erwin, owner of John Erwin Remodeling Inc., and former president of Olympia Master Builders.  “Three construction workers have died this year in our state, which is tragic. None of us would want that to happen on our job sites. It’s time to be proactive as opposed to reactive to help prevent all accidents on our job sites—especially life threatening accidents from falls,” said Erwin.

As part of his safety stand-down, Erwin directed his staff to inspect all their ladders and ended up taking two of the more well-used but questionable ladders out of service and replaced them with new approved ladders.

Participating employers can print out a certificate of participation and add their name to a list of safety stand-down supporters. For ideas and resources or to get a certificate of participation, visit www.Lni.wa.gov/StopFalls.

 

4 Ways to Avoid the Most Common Warehouse Incidents

Today’s post was shared by Workers Comp Brief and comes from www.ulworkplace.com

warehouse

Employees working in a warehouse are exposed to a number of strenuous activities that can threaten their well-being. According to OHSA, the number of forklift-related accidents reaches close to 100,000 per year (100 fatal accidents, 34,900 serious injury accidents, and 61,800 non-serious accidents). As a result, those who handle heavy material handling equipment such as forklifts need to take special precautions to ensure that the materials they transport are properly handled. Here are four most common warehouse incidents you can easily avoid to prevent injuries and increase workplace productivity.

Slips & Trips
The warehouse is a place with lots of stuff. Its narrow aisles, tall stacks of goods, and poor lighting are the exact ingredients that can compromise visibility. Slipping and tripping over materials or spilled liquid are common accidents that can be avoided if the warehouse maintains adequate lighting and equips dark corners with special lights that can be easily switched on and off. Remove unnecessary steps or ridges and encourage employees to never leave any cargo, box, and goods unattended on the floor.

If a warehouse worker needs to temporarily leave the floor, it is important for him or her to move materials away from the center of the aisle while keeping lights on. In cases when something is spilled, employees should take the proper steps to close the area with visible signs and clean up as soon as possible.

Falls
Duties in the warehouse sometimes take…

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Insurance Information Institute Challenges Our Workers’ Comp Investigation. We Respond

Today’s post was shared by Jon L Gelman and comes from www.propublica.org

After John Coffell hurt his back at an Oklahoma tire plant last year, his wages dropped so dramatically that he and his family were evicted from their home. (Brett Deering/AP for ProPublica)

Last Thursday, the Insurance Information Institute sent ProPublica and NPR a letter challenging our investigation into workers’ compensation reform laws and the impact they’ve had on some workers.

The stories reported that since 2003, more than 30 states have cut benefits, created hurdles to getting medical care, or made it more difficult for injured workers to qualify. At the same time, we reported, employers are paying the lowest workers’ comp rates since the 1970s. And in 2013, insurance companies had their most profitable year in over a decade.

Robert P. Hartwig, president of the institute, wrote that the stories were based on “unsubstantiated assertions, incorrect interpretations and subsequent erroneous conclusions.”

He pointed to no specific errors, however, and demanded no corrections.

We’ve posted a summary of the institute’s letter here. This is our response:

1. “The very title of the ProPublica/NPR is at best misleading and at worst erroneous. ‘The Demolition of Workers Comp’ is hyperbole of the highest order. The fact of the matter is that workers’ compensation insurers today provide some $40 billion in benefits annually to hundreds of thousands of injured workers and to the families of those killed on the job…

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Florida Supreme Court Thwarts Attempt to Circumvent “Exclusive Remedy” Provision

Today’s post was shared by Workers Comp News and comes from www.jdsupra.com

Most states limit a worker’s remedies for work-related injuries to a workers’ compensation claim against the employer. Such "exclusive remedy" provisions codify a longstanding compromise whereby employers trade liability, regardless of fault, for protection from large tort awards, and employees surrender a cause of action in return for swift but limited financial benefits.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys and like-minded reformers seeking to challenge exclusive remedy provisions have made some progress in recent years. For instance, in August 2014, a judge in Miami-Dade County, Florida ruled that Florida’s workers’ compensation statutes were "unconstitutional" on their face because they no longer provided adequate benefits to injured workers in exchange for them giving up their constitutional rights to pursue civil litigation. In Padgett v. State of Florida, which is currently on appeal, the trial judge declared that statutory changes in Florida had eroded benefits for injured workers to the point that it was no longer a "grand bargain" for the injured workers.

In Morales v. Zenith Ins. Co., however, the Florida Supreme Court recently rejected an attempt to evade the exclusive remedy provisions of Florida’s workers’ compensation law, holding that the challenged provisions barred the estate of a worker killed on the job from collecting a $9.5 million wrongful death judgment against the deceased worker’s former…

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Comp reporting plan would increase employer burden

Today’s post was shared by Workers Comp Brief and comes from www.businessinsurance.com

Photo by BLOOMBERG A sign marks the entrance to the headquarters of the Social Security Administration located on Security Boulevard in Baltimore, Maryland.

The Social Security Administration’s proposal that workers compensation benefits be reported annually to the agency would increase insurers’ and employers’ paperwork and costs.

“There is a potential here of an extra burden … and potentially extra costs for employers and carriers around the country,” said Rafael Gonzalez, Tampa, Florida-based vice president of strategic solutions at Helios Settlement Solutions, a unit of pharmacy benefit manager Helios.

The requirement likely would be similar to reporting rules implemented by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in 2009, said Brad Peterson, a shareholder at law firm Heyl, Royster, Voelker & Allen P.C. in Urbana, Illinois.

“It would require insurers or others covered under this proposed rule to determine the Social Security status of a particular workers compensation claimant. So it would certainly add a burden in that regard,” Mr. Peterson said.

The mandate is a single paragraph in the Social Security Administration’s proposed fiscal 2016 budget published in February. The administration says it would require “states, local governments and private insurers that administer” workers comp and public disability benefits to report data on those benefits to the administration.

The proposal also would “provide for the…

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WA State Agency Asks for Criminal Charges in Teen’s Workplace Death

By Nick McGurk, KIRO TV

The Department of Labor and Industries is pushing for criminal charges against a company after a teenager was found dead in the blades of an auger last July. 

Bradley Hogue, 19, was on his second day of work last July at a landscaping job he’d taken with Everett-based Pacific Topsoils. 

Hogue, found by a co-worker, was tangled in the blades of an auger on a wood-chipping truck. 

L&I’s director wrote a letter this week to the King County Prosecutor’s Office asking for charges to be filed – a move so rare it only happens once every couple of years. 

“This situation is horrible, and tragic, and nobody would ever want it to happen to anyone they know,” said Tim Church with Department of Labor and Industries. 

“It’s rare for us to ask for criminal charges in a workplace safety incident, but we believe this one warrants it,” added Church. 

The L&I letter states that Hogue never should have been in that truck with machinery on, and that the only place he could stand was a moving conveyor belt. 

He didn’t receive any training, the letter says. 

In late December, L&I also fined Pacific Topsoils nearly $200,000—a fine the company has since appealed. 

L&I says they conduct thousands of inspections every year in the state of Washington. 

Last year they reported 89 workplace related deaths. 

Pacific Topsoils didn’t respond to KIRO 7’s voicemail or emails for comment on Friday night.

Contracting Scams Result in Jail Time and Fines

Seattle – A contractor who scammed two building owners has been sentenced to four months in King County Jail and ordered to pay more than $25,000 in restitution.

Collin Patrick Chester, 43, pled guilty in December 2014 to two felony charges of first-degree theft. Superior Court Judge Theresa B. Doyle ordered Chester into custody immediately after sentencing March 27 and filed a 10-year no-contact order with the owners or buildings.

“Justice for consumers is important,” said Elizabeth Smith, assistant director of the Fraud Prevention & Labor Standards Program for the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. “This is sadly another example of someone trying to take advantage of people who simply wanted to get needed work accomplished.”

In one case, in the spring of 2012, the owner of the Quality Inn on Maple Valley Highway in Renton agreed to pay Chester $70,000 to replace the roof. The only work Chester did was to hire an unregistered subcontractor who tore off a portion of the roof and then abandoned the job because he was not paid, leaving an open roof that resulted in water damage to the hotel when it rained.

In the second case, Chester was contracted to build a new roof for a building in Shoreline. He said he would do the work for $16,000, but no work occurred from May to September 2013, when it was supposed to take place.

In both cases, the building owners paid for some of the work in advance and faced additional expenses to complete the projects. Chester’s previous criminal history included three cases of contracting without a license, a gross misdemeanor.

L&I can help building owners hire smart. Go online to www.protectmyhome.net to verify contractor registration, report fraud, and find agency representatives at many home shows around the state. Upcoming events include the Spokane SHBA Premier Home Improvement Show April 10 – 12, at the Big Home & Garden Show April 18 – 19 in Lacey, and at the Clark County Home & Garden Idea Fair in Ridgefield, April 24 – 26.

Workers’ Comp Programs Further Injure Injured Workers

Today’s post comes from guest author Thomas Domer, from The Domer Law Firm.

Those of us who represent injured workers have known for a long time that workers’ compensation does not restore an injured worker to his pre-injury wage or status.  Two reports released in March show how workplace injuries have failed injured workers and leave them deeper in debt.  OSHA released a report indicating the changes in workers’ compensation programs have made it much more difficult for injured workers to receive benefits or medical expenses.  Although employers pay insurance premiums to workers’ compensation insurance companies who are supposed to pay benefits for medical expenses, employers provide just 20% of the overall financial cost of workplace injuries through workers’ compensation according to the OSHA report. 

This “cost shifting” is borne by the taxpayer.  As a result of this cost shifting, taxpayers are subsidizing the vast majority of the income and medical care costs of injured workers.  After a work injury, injured workers’ incomes average more than $30,000 lower over a decade than if they had not been injured.  Additionally, very low wage workers are injured at a disproportionate rate. 

Another report by ProPublica and National Public Radio found that 33 states have workers’ compensation laws that reduced benefits or made it more difficult for those with certain injuries and diseases to qualify for benefits.  Those hurdles, combined with employers and insurers increasing control of medical decisions (such as whether an injured worker needs surgery) reduced the worker’s likelihood of obtaining the medical care needed.

Overall, injured workers who should be paid under workers’ compensation are receiving less benefits and their medical care is being dodged by insurers and paid for by taxpayers through Medicaid and Medicare, or by increased insurance premiums for all of us through group health insurance rate increases.

Our general sense that injured workers are faring poorly is borne out by the research.

A Novel Way to Mandate Sick Leave, From Microsoft

Today’s post was shared by The New York Times and comes from www.nytimes.com

Bradford L. Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, said the company was in part responding to complaints from contract employees who did not have the same benefits as full-time employees. Credit Jordan Stead for The New York Times

It is difficult to imagine, at least in the current political climate, that the federal government would require paid sick leave for workers, let alone vacation time.

But the White House announced Wednesday that senior officials, including the labor secretary, would begin a monthlong roadshow around the country to promote paid leave. And in his State of the Union address, President Obama urged Congress to pass a bill giving workers seven days of paid sick leave.

But any federal requirement would need the support of Congress, a tough obstacle.

Yet there is another, emerging model: companies forcing other companies to adopt these policies. On Thursday morning, Microsoft announced that it would require many of its 2,000 contractors and vendors to provide their employees who perform work for Microsoft with 15 paid days off for sick days and vacation time.

In some ways, it’s a uniquely American solution. In the absence of a federal policy, the biggest and wealthiest companies are performing the role of setting workplace policy for other businesses.

As the economy has become more dependent on contract workers, workers’ rights advocates have voiced concern about their working conditions, especially for low-skilled jobs.

The situation…

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Walmart, Lowe’s, Safeway, and Nordstrom Are Bankrolling a Nationwide Campaign to Gut Workers’ Comp

Today’s post was shared by Jon L Gelman and comes from www.motherjones.com

In recent years, companies have used that freedom to severely curtail long-standing benefits.

Two states, Texas and Oklahoma, already allow employers to opt out of state-mandated workers’ comp. In Texas, the only state that has never required employers to provide workers’ comp, Walmart has written a plan that allows the company to select the physician an employee sees and the arbitration company that hears disputes. The plan provides no coverage for asbestos exposure. And a vague section of the contract excludes any employee who was injured due to his "participation" in an assault from collecting benefits unless the assault was committed in defense of Walmart’s "business or property." It is up to Walmart to interpret what "participation" means. But the Texas AFL-CIO has argued that an employee who defended himself from an attack would not qualify for benefits.

"It creates a race to the bottom."

A 2012 survey of Texas companies with private plans found that fewer than half offered benefits to seriously injured employees or the families of workers who died in workplace accidents. (The state plan, which Texas companies can follow on a voluntary basis, covers both.) Half of employer plans capped benefits, while the state plan pays benefits throughout a worker’s recovery.

Businesses can save millions of dollars by opting out and writing plans with narrow benefits, putting pressure on their competitors to do the same. "It creates a race…

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