Tag: Workers Comp

The Hanover Insurance Group Inc. on Thursday announced an expansion of its workers compensation program to gain insights into factors that may impact the treatment of an injured worker.

The program leverages data and predictive analytics to examine the “psychological, social and economic factors that potentially creates barriers to recovery and return to work including stress levels, health beliefs and literacy, family relationships, employer and employee relationships, and social support,” the Worcester, Massachusetts-based company said in a statement.

The new approach includes administering surveys to both injured employees and employers at the time of injury to identify all factors that may impact a claim earlier in the process, said Carmen Sharp, senior vice president of claims at The Hanover, in the statement. 

 

 

Members of Congress are calling on the United States Postal Service to implement more stringent workplace protections against heat exposure.

In a Thursday letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, 75 House Democrats urged the Postal Service to “immediately implement” the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings proposed rule, which is not yet finalized.

The lawmakers said while the Postal Service already has a heat illness prevention plan, letter carriers continue to report “systemic heat illness issues even with the HIPP in place.”

The letter says that OSHA inspections have found that the current plan has failed to adequately protect workers.

The congresspeople said that while the Postal Service is not yet required to adopt the OSHA proposed rule because it’s not yet final, there is nothing stopping the agency from “improving on the Postal Service’s current policies to address failings and protect workers.”

“If you decline to implement the standards in the proposed rule as soon as possible, we request that you explain why you will not, given the demonstrable ongoing risk to employees,” the letter states. 

 

 

 

A class of plaintiffs suing chemical manufacturers over workplace toxic exposures should have been permitted to pursue their lawsuit because a statute of limitations should have been waived, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled in a precedential case Thursday.

In Adkins v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., the Supreme Court said a trial court improperly dismissed the case because a discovery rule extending a two-year limitations period should have been honored.

The rule allows the filing of claims past the limitations period when injured workers discover or “reasonably should have discovered facts supporting a cause of action.”

The plaintiffs allege that either they, or their deceased family members, were exposed to polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCBs, and other toxic chemicals while working at the Clark County Government Center.

The plaintiffs allege the defendants, including Union Pacific Railroad and others, knew about the presence of toxic chemicals on the government center land, and that their lawsuit should have been permitted because the limitation period should “not start to run until they reasonably could have discovered their injuries and the cause of those injuries,” the Supreme Court ruling states.

The court said that despite the trial court’s finding to the contrary, the discovery rule can be applied to the statute of limitations governing wrongful death and personal injury actions, “even in the absence of express language incorporating that rule into the statute.”

The Supreme Court remanded the case to the trial court for further proceedings.  

 

 

A Pennsylvania appellate court on Wednesday refused a defense request for a new trial in a case that resulted in a $15.5 million award for a worker severely burned by electricity during tree removal work.

The Pennsylvania Superior Court denied an appeal by Vito Braccia Construction LLC, which said it should have been immune from civil litigation because of workers compensation exclusive remedy.

The case involved a workplace incident in which tree worker Brian Feldman suffered severe electrical burns in October 2022 while engaged in tree removal work at a construction site in Bala Cynwyd.

Mr. Feldman had been using a chainsaw to cut up pieces of a removed tree when he was severely shocked by electricity during a mishap involving tree branches and an adjacent power line.

The incident caused Mr. Feldman to develop burns to more than 62% of his body, 20% of which were third-degree. He spent six weeks recovering in a hospital’s burn unit.

Mr. Feldman, who claims he suffers from disabilities because of the incident, was awarded $15.5 million in damages following a jury trial in Philadelphia.

On appeal, Braccia Vito Construction argued, among other things, that the case should have been handled exclusively in workers comp, but the appeals court ruled that the company was not deemed a statutory employer under the state’s workers comp law, and thus was not immune to litigation. 

 

 

The “It Ends With Us” cast drama ventured into workplace safety and workers compensation territory this week when celebrity news site TMZ reported that actor Justin Baldoni inquired of an on-the-set fitness trainer Blake Lively’s weight, as he was supposed to lift her to film a romantic scene.

Ms. Lively, who allegedly quarreled with the actor over issues with kissing scenes and the script, saw the episode mentioning her weight as being “fat-shamed,” as she had just given birth months before filming began, according to the report. 

But Mr. Baldoni, who has not responded to the allegations, was just being mindful of preventing a workplace injury: “he has a history of back issues and wanted to know how to properly train to avoid hurting himself,” TMZ reported.

 

 

The U.S. Department of Labor said Wednesday it has reached a settlement agreement with a Mississippi poultry processing plant following the death of a young worker in July 2023.

A 16-year-old employee died after being caught inside a machine while cleaning the equipment at a plant in Hattiesburg, leading to a workplace safety investigation by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Inspectors found that Gainesville, Georgia-based Mar-Jac Poultry MS LLC, which operates the plant, failed to implement required safety procedures that would have prevented the machine-related death.

The settlement agreement requires the company to pay $164,814 in penalties and implement enhanced safety measures to protect workers from machine hazards.

Mar-Jac Poultry must also conduct a risk and hazard assessment to evaluate the safety exposures associated with lockout-tagout procedures for sanitation workers.

The company has facilities in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.

 

 

 

 

Concentra Inc. on Wednesday announced the launch of its behavioral health service available through Concentra Telemed, the company’s workers compensation telemedicine platform.

The service aims to meet “the current demand of workers with mental health conditions related to a workplace event” and will offer access to in-house trained medical professionals who can address the psychological trauma of a work-related injury, the Addison, Texas-based occupational medicine provider said.

Some services may include validity testing for referrals, treatment for work injury patients with diagnosed mental health conditions, and counseling sessions with employees suffering from conditions associated with mental injuries, such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

 

 

The Wyoming Office of Administrative Hearings wrongly denied reimbursement for medical expert fees to injured workers in two separate cases, the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

The OAH contended that it lacked statutory authority under the state’s workers compensation law to order medical expert fee reimbursement in cases where a physician who conducts independent medical exams at a claimant’s request was not appointed by OAH.

The consolidated cases were Terry J. Leal v. State of Wyoming et al. and Dustin Kopp v. State of Wyoming et al.

“OAH has the authority to order reimbursement of an employee’s reasonably incurred medical expert witness fees in contested cases,” the high court wrote. “OAH’s conclusion to the contrary was not in accordance with the law.”

A federal court in Greeneville, Tennessee, on Monday ordered a staffing agency to stop illegally placing children in dangerous jobs.

The Department of Labor, which announced the consent judgment, said federal investigators had discovered “oppressive child labor at a Morristown (Tennessee) manufacturing facility that produces outdoor power equipment for major companies including John Deere, Toro and Yamaha.”

The DOL’s Wage and Hour Division had found that Professional Personnel Service Inc., operating as Luttrell Staffing in Kingsport, Tennessee, employed children to work at Tuff Torq in violation of child labor laws.

Luttrell Staffing was ordered to comply with federal child labor laws and to pay $121,572 in civil penalties.

The consent judgment orders the company to, among other things, hire a third-party compliance specialist, submit regular reports to the Wage and Hour Division, and establish a toll-free number that allows employees to report violations anonymously.

Luttrell Staffing provides employers with workers at locations in California, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia.