Tag: Workers Comp

Attempts to compel workers to have COVID-19 vaccinations have caused controversy since shortly after the vaccines became available two years ago, and inevitably courts have had to rule on the issue.

In perhaps the most high-profile ruling, in January the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against a Biden administration rule that employers with at least 100 employees require workers to be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing.

The story about the Supreme Court’s decision was the seventh-most-read workers compensation-related story on Business Insurance’s website in 2022. 

The mandate was released by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration in November 2021, prompting a string of lawsuits from various groups and employers that said OSHA had overstepped its powers.

Shortly after the Supreme Court ruling, OSHA withdrew the vaccination requirement for large employers.

The ruling shifted decisions on workplace vaccination rules back to employers, who made starkly different choices.

Narrower vaccine mandates, though, did pass muster with the courts. While rejecting the large employer mandate, the high court allowed vaccination requirements for health care workers.

And later in the year, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor rejected a bid to prevent New York City from enforcing its vaccine mandate for municipal workers.

No. 8 most read story

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration continued to crack down on safety violations in 2022, including on repeat offenders.

For the third year, a Schaumburg, Illinois-based excavating contractor received OSHA citations for failing to adhere to safety measures designed to keep trench workers safe from potentially lethal cave-ins. The agency proposed penalties of $118,962.

A. Lamp Concrete Contractors Inc. received a citation in November after OSHA inspectors said they witnessed two employees working in a 7-foot-deep trench without adequate safety measures in June at a municipal sewer and water line project in Broadview, Illinois.  

The story about the citations was the eighth-most read workers comp-related story on the Business Insurance website in 2022. 

A. Lamp Concrete was cited in both 2018 and 2021 for exposing workers to cave-in hazards.  

OSHA considers cave-ins to pose the greatest risk to construction workers’ lives.

Other construction companies received similar trench cave-in hazard citations from OSHA this year, including a Missouri contractor, Arrow Plumbing LLC, which was cited in April and received a $796,817 penalty for exposing two workers to cave-in hazards.   

In October, the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission affirmed two serious OSHA violations issued to J.D. Abrams L.P. after inspectors found a lack of cave-in protections at an excavation site in Austin, Texas, in 2019.  The company received a penalty of $13,494.

No. 9 most read story

A fatal shoplifting incident led to a safety citation for a budget retailer this year after federal regulators found that the chain did not train staff sufficiently to respond to in-store thefts.

The Department of Labor cited a Family Dollar Inc. store in Orlando, Florida, for willful and repeat safety violations and proposed $330,446 in penalties after the Occupational Safety and Health Administration said the store had entrapment hazards and did not do enough to train employees on proper procedures in the event of robberies or shoplifting incidents.    

A 41-year-old Family Dollar employee died in late 2021 after trying to prevent a shoplifter from fleeing the store with stolen merchandise.

OSHA issued the company a willful violation citation for keeping an emergency exit door locked with a single key held by a manager and gave out two repeat violation citations for failing to keep a clear pathway for employees to walk through and for allowing store aisles to remain blocked by carts and boxes of merchandise.

The story about the citations was the ninth most read workers compensation-related story on the Business Insurance website in 2022.

The Florida incident was not the only time Family Dollar has received citations from OSHA this year for hazards at its stores.

In early December, a Family Dollar store in Richmond Hill, Georgia, was cited by OSHA for safety hazards after inspectors said they discovered improperly secured compressed-gas cylinders and unsafely stacked boxes of merchandise at the location.

A $364,645 fine was proposed in the Georgia case.

No. 10 most read story

While the workers compensation industry remains profitable, and injury frequency continues to decline year over year, concerns over the so-called severity trend continued to plague the industry.

A story analyzing the industry’s concerns over the impact of aging workers and expensive comorbidities on injury severity and the accompanying increase in medical costs was the 10th most-read workers compensation-related article this year on Business Insurance’s website.

A key driver, some said, was that advances in medical technology were costing employers and insurers more in comp claims costs.

But lower frequency has helped offset the increases, in part, according to industry experts who discussed the high-risk field of construction work at the 42nd International Risk Management Institute Inc. Construction Risk Conference in Las Vegas in November.

Hawaii’s Intermediate Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the state’s Special Compensation Fund is not liable to pay permanent partial disability benefits if a worker’s preexisting condition did not cause a disability.

In Pave v. Production Processing, Inc., the court took up a consolidated pair of appeals involving workers who were injured on the job and sought partial benefits from the trust fund.

The fund is funded annually through levies paid by workers compensation insurers and kicks in should an employer fail to pay workers comp benefits to injured employees.

In its ruling, the appeals court determined that in each of the two cases, there was no evidence that the injured workers’ asymptomatic preexisting conditions had caused a disability before their respective work accidents, and that Hawaii’s Labor and Industrial Relations Appeals Board was wrong to apportion liability for the permanent partial disability benefits to the fund.

The court wrote that in each of the cases, at least one doctor apportioned causation of post-work-accident disability to a preexisting condition, but no evidence existed that the preexisting conditions caused any pre-accident loss or impairment of physical or mental function.

In the first case, Production Processing Inc. claimed apportionment with the fund in connection a worker’s neck injury. The second case involved Altres Inc. and a worker’s knee injury.

The fund appealed both cases, challenging the apportionment of liability.

 

Louisiana workers compensation rates will see a 12.2% reduction in 2023, Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon announced on Wednesday.

The decrease, set to take effect on May 1, 2023, continues a downward trend the state has seen for nine out of the past 10 years.

Mr. Donelon said in a statement that Louisiana’s workers comp market is “thriving,” and that a dramatic reduction in rates during the past two decades is great news for employers across the state.

The state has seen a combined decrease in workers comp rates of 35% during the past five years, 47% during the past 10 years, and 63% during the past 20 years.

Louisiana’s total workers comp insurance market this year was estimated to have about $850 million in written premium, according to the Louisiana Department of Insurance. 

 

An Illinois appeals court has partially reversed a Workers’ Compensation Commission ruling overturning an arbitrator’s issuance of temporary total disability benefits to a retail worker injured during a December 2018 workplace accident.

In McGaha v. The Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission, the Fifth District Appellate Court of Illinois on Tuesday partially overturned a May Wayne County Circuit Court decision siding with the Worker’s Compensation Commission that Dollar General Corp. employee Nathaniel McGaha failed to prove causation between his injuries and the store incident.

Mr. McGaha filed for workers comp in June 2019 after injuring his elbow while unloading merchandise.

In March 2020, an arbitrator determined Mr. McGaha’s injuries stemmed from his workplace accident, awarding him medical expenses, medical treatment and temporary total disability benefits, but denying his request for attorney fees. 

On review, the Workers’ Compensation Commission reversed the awarding of temporary total disability benefits and medical treatment because Mr. McGaha failed to prove his carpal and cubital tunnel syndromes were causally connected to the work accident.

Mr. McGaha fell into a frozen lake while trying to rescue his dog in February 2019, two months after the work accident, and while he initially denied sustaining additional arm injuries, the employer questioned the connection between any nerve issues and the frozen lake incident.

The commission modified the arbitrator’s award of medical expenses because of the existence of the frozen lake incident.

The appeals court, however, said evidence weighed in Mr. McGaha’s favor, since, despite the commission’s determination, he was not required to present a medical opinion proving that his treatment was connected to the workplace accident and not the frozen lake incident. 

The appeals court affirmed the circuit court’s denial of penalties and legal fees. 

 

 

A Florida cannabis company announced Thursday that it has reached a voluntary agreement with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and that it will help the agency study issues regarding hazardous chemicals in marijuana production.

Trulieve Cannabis Corp. was originally fined $35,219 for three serious violations, two of which were withdrawn: “safety data sheet” and providing training under OSHA’s hazard communication standard. The remaining citation, which identified the standard for listing “hazardous chemicals,” was replaced with a citation about conducting a hazard analysis. The fine was reduced to $14,502, according to the Tallahassee-based company.

Under the agreement, Trulieve says it will undertake a study to determine whether ground cannabis dust is required to be classified as a “hazardous chemical” in the occupational setting, according to OSHA regulations. Work on the study is to be completed by May 29, 2023.

Pending the outcome of the study, Trulieve says it will design and implement a temporary information and training program that alerts employees to potential allergic reactions they might experience working with ground cannabis dust in an occupational setting. The program will include information about steps employees should take if they experience symptoms of allergies related to ground cannabis dust. 

 

 

 

Workers compensation insurance premiums for most Tennessee businesses will decline in 2023, marking the 10th year in a row that the state has seen reductions.

The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance announced Tuesday that an order approving a 10.2% overall loss cost decrease for the voluntary market would begin March 1, 2023, for new and renewal policies.

Tennessee employers have realized substantial savings with loss cost reductions since the state reformed its workers comp system in 2014, according to the Department of Commerce and Insurance.