Today’s post comes from guest author Jon Gelman from Jon Gelman, LLC – Attorney at Law.
This is a timely post as I just received notice that the Department of Labor and Industries investigated a fraud case against an employer in Lake Stevens, WA that did not cover his employees for workers’ compensation. This was not the first time the Department had contact with this employer for this same issue, either. This time, charges were filed and the employer was sentenced to sixty days in jail, converted to house arrest.
Roofers, of all workers, need their workers’ compensation coverage!
Today I received an urgent call from attorney representing a client in New Jersey who fell from a roof. Before she told me the job description of the injured worker, now in a coma, I correctly anticipated that it was probably a roofer who had fallen from a roof, yet again.
This scenario has played out in workers’ compensation claims for decades. How the accident happened is usually an argument with the employer. The employer claims that the employee was either intoxicated or not following safety precautions. My instinct always tell me that this is probably incorrect, since roofers tend to lose their balance and fall for many other reasons, including “gravity.” Some reason a deprivation of oxygen and/or exposure to toxic neurological irritants contained in the roofing materials, and weather related events that make roofs slippery.
Today’s post comes from guest author Jon Gelman from Jon Gelman, LLC – Attorney at Law.
A pending RICO case against Wal-Mart, Claims Management, Inc. (CMI) and others, where the plaintiff alleged that the employer, working in concert with other defendants “dictated and interfered unlawfully” with employees who were entitle to medical treatment flowing from occupational accidents. has been settledfor $8 Million. (Settlment Documents).
The parties made a Joint Statment on November 13, 2012 announcing the Court’s approval:
he United States District Court for the District of Colorado, Judge Robert N. Blackburn, has granted final approval to the settlement of a class action suit agains
JOSEPHINE GIANZERO and JENNIFER JENSEN, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v.WAL-MART STORES, INC., a Delaware corporation; CLAIMS MANAGEMENT, INC., an Arkansas corporation; AMERICAN HOME ASSURANCE CO., a New York corporation; CONCENTRA HEALTH SERVICES, INC., a Nevada corporation; and JOHN DOES 1-10, whose true names are unknown, Defendants. Civil Action No. 1:09-cv-00656-REB-BNB (USDCT Colorado)
….
Read more about RICO claims and Workers’ Compensation
A partial summary judgment motion was denied by Judge Robert E. Blackburn in a pending Colorado case against Wal-Mart where the plaintiff alleged that the employer, working in concert with other defendants “dictated and …
1961-1968.] The Class Action Complaint was filed on March 24, 2009. Gianzero v Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , et al., US DCT (D. Colorado) No. 09-cv-00656 REB BNB. Wal-Mart’s workers’ compensation has been critically reviewed …
The claim, on behalf of 7,000 Colorado Wal-Mart workers charges conspiracy with: Claims Management Inc., American Home Assurance Co. and Concentra Health Services Inc., to control medical treatment, who may have …
Concentra was denied a protective order in a pending Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), 18 U.S.C. § 1961, et seq. claim filed in Federal Court in Colorado. The plaintiffs allege that Wal-Mart …
Today’s post comes from guest author Jon Gelman from Jon Gelman, LLC – Attorney at Law.
For the first time in more than a decade, the seasonal flu is becoming a pandemic that is causing major business disruptions, and illness and death in the workplace. Despite urgent calls from public health officials and declarations of states of emergency, the flu continues to aversely effect businesses and employees throughout the country.
The laxity amongst employers and employees in getting flu vaccinations, a lack of paid sick days, a shortage of medicine to treat the flu and consequences occurring because of poorly designed vaccination programs, may stretch the nations workers’ compensation system to new limits.
CDC recommends a yearly flu vaccine as the first and most important step in protecting against flu viruses.
While there are many different flu viruses, a flu vaccine protects against the three viruses that research suggests will be most common. (See upcoming season’s Vaccine Virus Selection for this season’s vaccine composition.)
Everyone 6 months of age and older should get a flu vaccine as soon as thecurrent season’s vaccines are available.
Vaccination of high risk persons is especially important to decrease their risk of severe flu illness.
Vaccination also is important for health care workers, and other people who live with or care for high risk people to keep from spreading flu to high risk people.
Children younger than 6 months are at high risk of serious flu illness, but are too young to be vaccinated. People who care for them should be vaccinated instead.
If you are sick with flu-like illness, CDC recommends that you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone except to get medical care or for other necessities. (Your fever should be gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine.)
While sick, limit contact with others as much as possible to keep from infecting them.
Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
Wash your hands often with soap and water. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand rub.
Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth. Germs spread this way.
Clean and disinfect surfaces and objects that may be contaminated with germs like the flu.
If you get the flu, antiviral drugs can treat your illness.
Antiviral drugs are different from antibiotics. They are prescription medicines (pills, liquid or an inhaled powder) and are not available over-the-counter.
Antiviral drugs can make illness milder and shorten the time you are sick. They may also prevent serious flu complications. For people with high risk factors [702 KB, 2 pages], treatment with an antiviral drug can mean the difference between having a milder illness versus a very serious illness that could result in a hospital stay.
Studies show that flu antiviral drugs work best for treatment when they are started within 2 days of getting sick, but starting them later can still be helpful, especially if the sick person has a high-risk health or is very sick from the flu. Follow your doctor’s instructions for taking this drug.
Flu-like symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Some people also may have vomiting and diarrhea. People may be infected with the flu, and have respiratory symptoms without a fever.
Read more sbout the “flu” and workers’ compensation:
Laboratory Workers and Contacts Warned of Accidental Flu Pandemic. Safety in the laboratory workplace is of critical concern as many research laboratory employees suffer from exotic diseases that become workers’ …
As the US flu vaccination program rolls out, the numbers are also growing for those who have reported adverse consequences from the H1N1 vaccine. The victims and their families are also lining up for benefits available in …
The OSGA directive closely follows the prevention guidance issue by The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to prevent the spread of H1N1 flu. The purpose of the compliance directive is “to ensure uniform procedures when …
The 2009 influenza pandemic (flu) has created a new framework of acts and regulations to respond the World Health Organization’s (WHO) phase 6 pandemic alert. Governmentally imposed employment disruptions resulting …
The Department of Labor and Industries has adopted changes to the Washington Administrative Code regarding the:
credentialing,
approval,
removal, and
regulation of independent medical examination (IME) providers.
The rules are effective February 25, 2013.
These rules establish clear guidelines that a medical provider must follow to become an approved IME examiner. They also set the standards for IME examiners and firms to continue to receive referrals for IMEs. Rules governing the termination, suspension and discipline of IME providers and IME firms are also outlined.
Detailed information relating to this rule is provided in the CR-103 filing documents. View the CR-103 and the adopted language here.
Today’s post comes from guest author Leila A. Early from The Jernigan Law Firm.
Washington State can provide coverage for PTSD or similar mental injuries but only under certain circumstances. As the author points out, there are similar coverage provisions in North Carolina.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a type of anxiety disorder that can occur after a person has seen or experienced a traumatic event that involved the threat of injury or death. In civil war battles a soldier may be sitting next to his best friend when a cannonball takes off his friend’s head. The horror of such events put some soldiers out of action. Similarly, police officers have a higher incidence of PTSD/Anxiety Disorders than the general public due to the gruesome scenes and situations that they witness in their occupation. Classic symptoms of PTSD fall into three main categories: (1) reliving the event (such as nightmares and flashbacks); (2) avoidance (including feeling detached, numb, and avoiding things that remind them of the event); and (3) arousal (including difficulty concentrating, startling easily, and difficulty falling asleep).
Some of the police officers who responded to the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut are suffering from PTSD, calling it the worst crime scene they ever walked into. They are suffering from severe emotional distress and shock and have been unable to return to work due to the trauma they witnessed. Unfortunately, PTSD is not covered by workers’ compensation in Connecticut. Therefore they have been forced to use vacation and sick time to cope with the situation.
Our law firm has represented multiple police officers who have developed PTSD as a result of the gruesome scenes and situations they have been involved in at work. Fortunately, PTSD may qualify as an occupational disease under North Carolina workers’ compensation law. Hopefully the Connecticut legislature will amend their statutes in light of the school shootings to help these police officers get medical care and get back to work as quickly as possible.
By working together we can bring an end to gun violence in America
A man entered a Seattle bar late Sunday night, January 27, 2013, and confronted his ex-girlfriend, brandishing a gun. The gunman shot both his ex-girlfriend and the doorman before the gunman was fatally shot by Seattle police. Both the ex-girlfriend and the doorman were taken to Harborview Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Both were victims of senseless gun violence, but the doorman is also a workers’ compensation claimant due to this occurring while he was on-the-job.
2012 has been the worst year for these events in modern US history, with 151 victims injured and killed.
Quoting an article published by Mother Jones (Mother Jones Investigates: The NRA Myth of Arming the Good Guys), Washington CeaseFire shared that there have been at least 62 mass shootings in the last three decades, attacks in which the killer took the lives of four or more people (the FBI’s baseline for mass murder) in a public place—a school, a workplace, a mall, a religious building. Seven of them have occurred this year alone. Along with three other similar though less lethal rampages—at a Portland shopping mall, a Milwaukee spa, and a Cleveland high school—2012 has been the worst year for these events in modern US history, with 151 victims injured and killed.
On Tuesday, January 22nd, Washington CeaseFire presented the results of a statewide poll conducted by Alison Peters Consulting. The poll of 600 randomly selected registered Washington voters reveals a strong preference for stronger gun safety laws on both Eastern and Western sides of the state. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent. Findings included :
76% of state residents support tighter gun laws;
87% support a state law to require that everyone who buys a gun at a gun show undergo a background check;
66% support a state law to ban semi-automatic assault weapons;
68% are in support of a state law to increase mandatory penalties for youth firearm possession, starting with house detention at the first offense ;
68% would support a state law to limit ammunition clips on guns to 10 bullets; and,
66% of respondents are in support of a state law requiring the signature of local police on every concealed weapons permit application.
Washington CeaseFire states that it’s time to end gun violence in America, noting that gun deaths outnumber traffic fatalities in Washington and nine other states. Now is the time to make our voices heard. Please consider participating in a candlelight vigil and march on February 9, 2013 in Seattle, Washington, co-sponsored by CeaseFire. More than 1000 people attended a similar march held in January (see prior post for details) and it is hoped that the upcoming vigil and march will draw more attention to this issue.
Workers have flooded North Dakota to work in the booming oil industry.
A recent article in the New York Times (An Oil Boom Takes a Toll on Health Care, January 28, 2013) recounted the growing burden on North Dakota hospitals because of on-the-job injuries to workers who have flooded that state to work in the booming oil industry. Apparently North Dakota hospitals are swimming in debt from unpaid bills because, as the article by John Eligon states, “many of the new patients are transient men without health insurance or a permanent address in the area.”
“Swamped by uninsured laborers flocking to dangerous jobs in the oil industry, the hospitals here in the North Dakota oil patch are sinking under skyrocketing debt, a flood of gruesome injuries and bloated business costs from the inflated economy.”– John Eligon, New York Times
Mr. Eligon goes on to discuss actions by the governor and state legislature to increase medical training and medical facilities in North Dakota, and to obtain increased Medicaid financing for the state’s rural hospitals. Not only are medical facilities groaning from the increase of gruesome injuries associated with highly dangerous work environments, Mr. Eligon recounts the health issues that arise from the cramped housing scenarios in the work camps that have sprung up near the oil fields. This includes a significant increase in the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases.
However, nowhere in Mr. Eligon’s article is there any mention of, or reference to, North Dakota’s workers compensation system which would seemingly provide the principal coverage for the injuries and conditions that are the subject of his article. Is the NYT oblivious to the fact of coverage for industrial injuries and conditions under each state’s workers compensation law? Or are workers injured in the new booming oil economy of North Dakota somehow being denied coverage under that state’s system, or being engineered out of coverage by the terms of their employment with the oil companies? It seems that a minimal inquiry, at least, on these points was owed by the NYT in its article.
Wal-Mart’s Vice President of “Ethical Sourcing” (irony noted here) said the company control could “only go so far” in preventing an unauthorized factory producing its goods. Wal-Mart said its Faded Glory clothing should not have been produced in the factory, which Bangladesh officials said was not safe.
Wal-Mart’s “factory certification” program focused on Bangladesh and China was allegedly “dedicated to improving the status of foreign labor.” Tell that to the families of the workers who died.
At a meeting last year where Wal-Mart’s Vice President of Ethical Sourcing was in attendance, the Bangladeshi Garment Workers Union proposed that producers such as Wal-Mart help ensure prices are high enough to provide for safety measures for their workers.
Wal-Mart’s Vice President indicated Wal-Mart could not support such a program because of the high cost. Consider that next time you buy a cheap shirt at Wal-Mart.
Today’s post comes from guest author Jon Gelman from Jon Gelman, LLC – Attorney at Law.
Monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for nearly 62 million Americans will increase 1.7 percent in 2013, the Social Security Administration announced.
The 1.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will begin with benefits that more than 56 million Social Security beneficiaries receive in January 2013. Increased payments to more than 8 million SSI beneficiaries will begin on December 31, 2012.
Some other changes that take effect in January of each year are based on the increase in average wages. Based on that increase, the maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax (taxable maximum) will increase to $113,700 from $110,100. Of the estimated 163 million workers who will pay Social Security taxes in 2013, nearly 10 million will pay higher taxes as a result of the increase in the taxable maximum.
Information about Medicare changes for 2013, when announced, will be available at www.Medicare.gov. For some beneficiaries, their Social Security increase may be partially or completely offset by increases in Medicare premiums.
Based on the increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI-W) from the third quarter of 2011 through the third quarter of 2012, Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries will receive a 1.7 percent COLA for 2013. Other important 2013 Social Security information is as follows:
Tax Rate:
2012
2013
Employee
7.65%*
7.65%
Self-Employed
15.30%*
15.30%
NOTE: The 7.65% tax rate is the combined rate for Social Security and Medicare. The Social Security portion (OASDI) is 6.20% on earnings up to the applicable taxable maximum amount (see below). The Medicare portion (HI) is 1.45% on all earnings.
* The Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011 reduced the Social Security payroll tax rate by 2% on the portion of the tax paid by the worker through the end of February 2012. The Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 extended the reduction through the end of 2012. Under current law, this temporary reduction expires at the end of December 2012.
Maximum Taxable Earnings:
2012
2013
Social Security (OASDI only)
$110,100
$113,700
Medicare (HI only)
N o L i m i t
Quarter of Coverage:
2012
2013
Earnings needed to earn one Social Security Credit
$1,130
$1,160
Retirement Earnings Test Exempt Amounts:
2012
2013
Under full retirement age
NOTE: One dollar in benefits will be withheld for every $2 in earnings above the limit.
$14,640/yr.
($1,220/mo.)
$15,120/yr.
($1,260/mo.)
The year an individual reaches full retirement age
NOTE: Applies only to earnings for months prior to attaining full retirement age. One dollar in benefits will be withheld for every $3 in earnings above the limit.
There is no limit on earnings beginning the month an individual attains full retirement age.
The Department of Labor & Industries(L&I) provided the following information in a press release on January 11, 2013. L&I noted that it has cited the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for 15 worker-safety violations following an investigation into the drowning death of a DNR diver last summer. The citation carries a proposed penalty of $172,900.
The deceased diver, David Scheinost, age 24, was one of a four-person dive team from the DNR Aquatic Resources Division that was collecting geoduck samples to test for paralytic shellfish poisoning from the Manzanita and Restoration Point geoduck harvest tracts off Bainbridge Island on July 24.
Two SCUBA (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus) divers had deployed on their third dive of the day when the victim surfaced in distress and called out that he couldn’t breathe. The others were unable to reach him before he slipped below the surface and was gone. His body was found three days later.
The L&I investigation into the dive-safety policies and practices at DNR found:
370 occurrences over a six-month period in which divers were deployed without carrying a reserve breathing-gas supply.
DNR did not ensure a designated person was in charge at the dive location to supervise all aspects of the diving operation affecting the health and safety of the divers.
L&I concluded that these were “willful” violations, which means they were committed with intentional disregard or plain indifference to worker safety and health regulations.
“Commercial diving involves risks that unfortunately lead too often to tragedies like this incident,” said Anne Soiza, assistant director of L&I’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health. “These significant risk factors require advance planning, properly maintained equipment and strict adherence to procedures to ensure the protection of workers’ lives on each and every dive.”
In addition to the two willful violations, L&I cited DNR for eight “serious” and five “general” violations for not complying with standard safe-diving practices and procedures, including failure to:
Have an effective safety and health accident prevention program and training program.
Ensure that divers maintained continual visual contact with each other.
Inspect and maintain equipment.
Have a stand-by diver available while divers are in the water.
In Washington, state and local governments must provide safe workplaces for their employees just like private businesses, including following the minimum workplace safety and health rules. L&I is responsible for workplace safety and health and investigating workplace deaths for all private, state and local government worksites.
DNR will have 15 working days to appeal the citation. As with any citation, penalty money paid is placed in the workers’ compensation supplemental pension fund, helping workers and families of those who have died on the job. For a copy of the citation, please contact L&I Public Affairs at 360-902-5413.
Not mentioned in the L&I notice sent out today is the information from Bainbridge Island police, reported by the Seattle Times on September 4, 2012, that Mr. Scheinost was also suffering from “acute cocaine intoxication” at the time of his salt-water drowning, according to the death certificate. It is not clear whether this was factored into the penalty ordered by L&I.
[257 KB, 2 pages]
