Tag: Workers Comp

A New York thermometer manufacturer is facing $195,988 in proposed penalties from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration over claims it overexposed its workers to mercury at its facility.

OSHA on Monday announced citations against West Babylon, New York-based Kessler Thermometer Corp. for willfully exposing and sickening employees by allowing airborne concentrations of mercury to exceed an eight-hour, time-weighted average based on biological exposure indices.

The citations were issued for 18 serious violations, one willful violation and two other-than-serious violations.

The company has 15 days to contest the citations and penalties.

Inspectors said the mercury exposures were discovered in August 2022, at which time employees were working to distill and purify elemental mercury, fill thermometers, blow glass during calibration and engrave thermometers and hydrometers.

The company is also accused of failing to provide workers with proper respiratory protection and chemical hazard communication programs, failing to provide employees with appropriate personal protective equipment, failing to implement an emergency response plan to handle the cleanup of spilled mercury, failing to have an emergency shower and appropriate first aid and other alleged workplace safety failures. 

 

A Georgia manufacturing company has been cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration after a worker suffered severe injuries when his head became caught in a machine roller last summer.

OSHA on Monday cited Lafayette, Georgia-based Bonded Logic Inc. for two willful, two repeat and 10 serious violations after inspectors said the 21-year-old line operator at the insulation manufacturer sustained severe head trauma in the Aug. 24, 2022, workplace accident.

Inspectors accused the company of willfully failing to develop and use lockout and tagout procedures designed to prevent machines from suddenly starting and moving during maintenance operations.

The company is facing $423,432 in penalties. It has 15 days to contest the citations.

The repeat violations relate to claims that the company failed to install safety guards on machines and failed to certify forklift operators.

The other violations accuse the manufacturer of failing to train employees on hazards associated with confined spaces, failing to ensure energy control devices were applied to all energy sources during maintenance or servicing, and other alleged failures.

The company, which makes thermal and acoustical insulation products, was similarly cited in 2018 and 2021.

 

A workers compensation claim doesn’t ever mean you’re winning in life, and a woman in North Carolina was quick to see that when she got a suspicious text telling her that said she had won thousands of dollars in a workers comp claim.

Problem was, she was never injured at work, she told an Action 9 news station reporter investigating a scam that the U.S. Department of Labor has claimed “has been happening a lot recently,” according to the news segment.

Lamara Short said the text came from a “workers compensation appeal board” and it was congratulating her, saying she was “eligible to claim up to $62,000.00 or more.” It said she was the “luckiest winner.”

She’s lucky she didn’t fall for it, as the Department of Labor, in a fraud notice on its website, says many have been scammed by entities “trying to gain access to individuals’ financial and other private information. Individuals, living both within the United States and overseas, have been contacted and informed that their name is on “a list” for the receipt of benefits.” 

 

New York lawmakers filed legislation Tuesday that would designate post-traumatic stress disorder as a compensable occupational injury in workers compensation for certain first responders.

Assembly Bill 5135 would create a presumption that PTSD in law enforcement officers and emergency medical services personnel is proximately caused by employment unless it can be proved the diagnosis stems from activities outside of the workplace.

The measure also contains a provision that would require law enforcement officers and emergency medical services workers to submit to a pre-employment mental health screening and also undergo similar screenings as part of their regular medical examinations.

AB 5135 is the second PTSD presumption bill filed in New York since the start of 2023.

In late January, legislators filed Senate Bill 3367, which would recognize PTSD as a presumptive occupational injury for police officers, correction officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, paramedics, emergency dispatchers or other medical services personnel.

That bill has since been referred to the Senate Labor Committee.

 

 

 

Texas law enforcement officers who become injured while traveling to or from work would be eligible to collect workers compensation benefits under legislation filed on Tuesday.

House Bill 3335 would add “peace officers” to the list of other emergency responders permitted to file for comp benefits if they are injured during their work commute.

Under current law, first responders covered under this travel provision in the workers compensation law are firefighters and emergency medical services personnel.

The law says the responders are considered to be acting in the course and scope of their employment when traveling to work for the purposes of workers comp.

Texas statute defines “peace officers” to include sheriffs’ deputies, constables, marshals, police officers, rangers, prosecutorial investigators and a host of other law enforcement personnel.  

Texas remains the only state in the nation that does not require private employers to carry workers comp insurance. However, the exception to the exclusion is any public employee, such as those working for cities, counties, state agencies and state universities.  

 

 

 

Harford Mutual Insurance Group said late Thursday that monoline workers compensation insurer ClearPath Mutual Insurance Co. would merge into the larger property/casualty insurer.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Louisville, Kentucky-based ClearPath, which until 2018 was known as the Kentucky Workers’ Compensation Fund, or KESA, offers coverage in Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia. It operates through independent agents and relationships with local chambers of commerce and other associations.

ClearPath writes more than $52 million in direct written premium across about 7,000 policies, according to a statement by Bel Air, Maryland-based Harford.

According to its 2021 annual report, the latest year for which figures are available, ClearPath reported a $5.3 million profit for the year and a combined ratio of 103.5%. It had $253.8 million in admitted assets. It will continue under its existing name after the merger, the statement said.

Harford Mutual, which writes a broad range of commercial lines in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast, reported $290 million in direct written premium in 2021, net income of $30.7 million and a combined ratio of 91.6%. It had $731.4 million in total admitted assets.

In the statement, Jeff Borkowski, president and CEO of ClearPath, said the merger “will provide us with the scalable infrastructure and regional reach to meet our strategic goals.”

 

An Arkansas appeals court on Wednesday reversed a lower court decision permitting a worker injured in Afghanistan to transfer structured settlement annuity payments in a workers compensation case to take advantage of a lump-sum payment discount, ruling the transfer was prohibited.  

In Metropolitan Tower Life Insurance Co. v. Roosevelt Land Partners Corp., the Court of Appeals of Arkansas determined a lower judge erred in allowing Donald Hill’s attempted transfer of his structured settlement payments because it would violate the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act.

Mr. Hill had reached a settlement with his employer, private military contractor Dyncorp International, and Dyncorp’s insurer, Continental Insurance Co., which resulted in a structured settlement annuity agreement with MetLife Assignment Company Inc.

Mr. Hill sought to transfer his payments to Genex Capital Corp. for a discounted lump-sum payment. Genex assigned its interest to Roosevelt Land Partners.

MetLife objected to Roosevelt’s transfer application, arguing it was prohibited by the LHWCA, Mr. Hill’s 2019 settlement agreement, and MetLife’s annuity contract, while Roosevelt argued the transfer was not prohibited since payments were not “due or payable” under the LHWCA.

In August 2020, a trial judge approved the transfer to Roosevelt, finding it didn’t violate federal law because the payments from MetLife were not “due or payable” under the LHWCA.

MetLife argued the LHWCA prohibits the assignment of payments or benefits, but its petition to vacate the decision was denied, and MetLife appealed.

The appeals court ruled the settlement arose from claims under the LHWCA due to work injuries, and the settlement specifically provided MetLife as the entity with the “obligation to make the future payments” to Mr. Hill.

It reversed the lower court’s approval of the transfer and remanded the case for further proceedings.

 

Florida legislators are considering a bill that would increase by up to 50% fees paid to expert medical witnesses and physicians in workers compensation.

S.B. 1344, introduced Wednesday, states that any health care provider who gives a deposition shall be allowed a witness fee that may not exceed $300 per hour, up from $200 in current law. Under the bill an expert witness reviewing medical records for an expert opinion may not charge more than $300 per day, up from $200.

The bill also increases maximum reimbursements for a physician to 200% of the reimbursement allowed by Medicare, up from the current 110%. The maximum reimbursement for surgical procedures shall be increased to 200% of the Medicare rate, up from the current 140%. 

 

The California Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board announced Monday that outdoor job sites must contain accessible potable drinking water close to where employees work, the precedential decision binding for employers in a state considered to be one of the world’s largest economies.

The OSHAB determined that outdoor workplace drinking water must be located “as close as practical” to areas where employees are working to encourage frequent hydration.

The recent decision comes after California workplace safety inspectors opened a case against the Napa, California-based Rios Farming Co. vineyard in St. Helena in August 2018, at which time workers were found having to climb through multiple grape trellises to access drinking water, according to the OSHAB.

An administrative law judge had found that the grape trellises were an obstacle that discouraged workers from frequent water consumption, and the board ended up affirming the judge’s decision, which sets precedent for workplace safety standards.  

Rios Farming Co. had initially appealed the citation, but the administrative law judge affirmed the penalty, although the amount of monetary fines was ultimately modified.