Tag: Workers Comp

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation Thursday that prohibits municipalities from requiring employers to institute local workplace heat protections.

The measure, House Bill 433, prevents local governments from establishing, or requiring employers to establish, heat exposure requirements that are not otherwise required under state or federal law.

The bill says the prohibition would not apply “if it is determined that compliance … will prevent the distribution of federal funds to a political subdivision or would otherwise be inconsistent with federal requirements pertaining to receiving federal funds.”

Proposed worker heat protections affected under the ban are employee monitoring, water consumption, cooling measures, acclimation and recovery periods or practices, informational notice postings, heat exposure programs or training, first-aid measures and emergency response protocols, and reporting and recordkeeping requirements.

The bill was approved by a 74-36 House vote and a 24-15 Senate vote, according to legislative records.

The law says that it doesn’t limit the authority of political subdivisions to create heat exposure requirements for “direct employees” of the political subdivision.

The law is scheduled to take effect on July 1. 

 

 

 

 

 

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Friday said it cited a Kansas construction contractor for putting workers at risk of fall hazards.

OSHA cited Wellsville-based Triple A Built LLC for six instance-by-instance repeat violations for lack of fall protection and two repeat violations for not providing workers using powered nail guns with proper eye and face protection.

The agency proposed $233,210 in penalties. The company has 15 business days to contest the citation and proposed penalties.

OSHA said it cited Triple A Built after safety inspectors observed employees doing framing work without fall and eye protection on jobs sites in Peculiar and Blue Springs, Missouri, in October 2023.

The company had previously been cited for similar violations, OSHA said.

OSHA said it initiated its inspections under the agency’s National Emphasis Program for Falls and Regional Emphasis Program on Falls, Scaffolds and Electrocutions from Overhead Power Lines in Construction.

 

 

Commercial insurance rate hikes accelerated across most major lines of coverage during the first quarter, according to a report Monday from Ivans Insurance Services, a unit of Applied Systems Inc.

Property rates again increased the most, with an average annual renewal rate hike of 10.5%, compared with 10.3% in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Business owners policy rates rose 9.3% in the first quarter, compared with 9.1% in the fourth quarter; commercial auto was up 9.1%, compared with 8.8%; umbrella rates increased 6.8%, up from 6.4%; and general liability rates rose 5.9%, up slightly from 5.8%.

The only major line to see rate decreases was again workers compensation, where rates slipped 0.9% in the first quarter, compared with a 0.6% decline in the fourth quarter.

 

 

The Tennessee Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board on Friday vacated a judge’s decision granting summary judgment to Mavis Tire Supply LLC in a case brought by an auto mechanic who claims he suffered a gradual back injury due to his work duties.

George Harris claimed his cumulative back injury was due to “bending, pulling, and lifting” in his role as a mechanic, and he filed for workers compensation benefits in October 2020.

Mavis obtained the expert opinion of a physician who determined that the back injuries were likely degenerative and “do not contain any description of a work accident,” the workers comp board ruling states.

Mr. Harris, however, provided reports from another doctor stating that the back condition was primarily caused by his employment, even though he also reportedly suffered injuries from a 2019 vehicle accident, according to the ruling.

A trial judge ultimately granted summary judgment to Mavis, but the comp appeals board said that the judge erred in not issuing a formal notice or other filings informing the parties, including Mr. Harris, of a date for the hearing on the company’s motion for summary judgment.

The ruling states that Mr. Harris never attended the hearing because he was unaware of the date and time, and that the trial court made a procedural error.  

The appeals board remanded the case to the trial judge for further proceedings. 

 

 

A Michigan appellate court has allowed a negligence lawsuit to proceed against a pair of subcontractors, ruling that workers compensation exclusive remedy doesn’t apply when a worker who becomes injured on a jointly controlled job site seeks to sue a company other than his employer.

The Michigan Court of Appeals on Thursday reversed a trial judge’s decision to grant summary judgment to Barton Malow Buildings LLC and Saylor’s Inc., two defendants in a lawsuit brought by Michael Crispin, who worked for Universal Glass, which was subcontracted to work on a project run by Rock Development Co. LLC to construct the Wayne County Criminal Justice Center.

Mr. Crispin said he became injured in October 2020 while working on an aerial lift welding windows on the fourth floor of the project. He claimed a large piece of fireproofing material being applied by Saylor’s fell and landed on him.

The defendants sought to have the suit dismissed because Mr. Crispin received workers comp benefits and that the litigation was barred because of exclusive remedy. The trial judge agreed.

The appeals court said that Mr. Crispin correctly determined that exclusive remedy doesn’t apply because the defendants were not his employer.

The appellate court allowed the lawsuit to proceed, remanding the case to the trial court for additional proceedings.    

 

 

An auto recycling and used parts supplier has entered into a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor over claims that the company engaged in numerous workplace safety violations.

Camden, New Jersey-based The Auto Store LLC, operating as My Auto Store, has agreed to pay $868,628 in penalties to resolve a safety citation that included 35 “willful,” “repeat,” and “serious” violations.

The citation and penalties stemmed from a U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspection that uncovered numerous failures to protect workers from fall, machine, noise, electrical and other hazards.

The settlement requires The Auto Store to implement a “comprehensive corporate Safety and Health Management System,” which includes safety facility audits by a third-party consultant, safety training programs and additional steps that will protect workers from “fear or retaliation” if engaged in safety committee work to improve the job site, the DOL said. 

 

 

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Thursday it cited a marine and heavy construction contractor after five workers plunged into a river during a pier collapse.

OSHA cited Plantsville, Connecticut-based Mohawk Northeast Inc. for one “willful” violation and four “serious” violations and proposed $214,327 in penalties following the October 2023 workplace accident.

Two of the five workers who fell into the Acushnet River in New Bedford, Massachusetts, were injured after a 200-foot section of pier collapsed on Hervey Tichon Avenue.

OSHA said the company failed to determine whether the pier’s walking and working surfaces had the strength and structural integrity to safely support employees plus the weight of the materials and equipment at the construction site.

Mohawk Northeast also failed to secure a crawler crane to a barge to prevent shifting, failed to mark the crane’s swing radius to prevent it from striking employees, and didn’t provide life jackets for workers, the agency said.

The company has 15 business days to contest the citation and proposed penalties.  

 

 

 

 

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly Thursday signed a workers compensation bill that includes benefit increases and more restrictive criteria for injured workers to receive future care after reaching maximum medical improvement.

S.B. 430 increases permanent total disability benefits to $400,000 from $155,000. The bill increases the maximum temporary total, permanent partial and temporary partial disability benefit to $225,000 from $130,000.

And the measure increases death benefits to $500,000 from $300,000.

The bill also requires benefits to be increased based on changes in the state’s average weekly wage, starting in 2027.

The law also requires injured workers to provide clear and convincing evidence of the need for future medical treatment to rebut a presumption that the employer’s liability for medical ends when a worker reaches maximum medical improvement.

In addition, it requires use of the sixth edition of the American Medical Association’s Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment instead of the fourth.

WorkCompCentral is a sister publication of Business Insurance. More stories here. 

 

Pennsylvania lawmakers have filed legislation to legalize recreational marijuana, a measure sponsors say is grounded in “safety and social equity” while emphasizing safe workplaces.

House Bill 2210, introduced Tuesday, would regulate the personal use and possession of cannabis.

There is companion legislation pending in the Senate.

The state legalized marijuana for medical purposes in 2016.

The proposal would also permit Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana patients to grow a limited number of cannabis plants at home for personal use, something currently prohibited.

The bill includes various workplace requirements regarding the use of the drug by employees and job applicants.

Employers would be allowed to adopt zero-tolerance, drug-free workplace policies, and companies would still be able to discipline or fire workers who are found to be impaired by marijuana while on the job.

In a co-sponsorship memorandum, the bill’s prime sponsor, State Rep. Amen Brown, a Philadelphia Democrat, said Pennsylvania is losing out on tax revenue due to legal marijuana sales in neighboring New Jersey and New York, which have implemented adult-use cannabis.

Failure to adopt legalization “risks permanently ceding hundreds of millions of dollars of new tax revenue as well as thousands of jobs” to other states, Rep. Brown wrote.

The bill was referred to the House Health Committee. 

 

 

 

Psychosocial hazards in the workplace are causing physical and psychological harm to employees at increasing rates and driving a call to improve worker well-being, according to a report released Wednesday by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Psychosocial hazards are on the verge of surpassing many other occupational hazards, the report states. This could lead to a decrease in employee health, an increase in workplace injuries and disabilities and potentially higher workers compensation costs.

“The extensive and cumulative impacts of these exposures represent an alarming public health problem that merits immediate, increased attention,” NIOSH wrote.

Psychosocial hazards can also lead to burnout, cardiovascular disease, depression, high blood pressure, sleep disturbances and suicidal ideation, according to NIOSH.

Many workers are exposed to some degree of psychosocial hazards due to deadlines and trying to meet employer expectations, and also because of co-worker interactions and having to cope with difficult work organization processes, NIOSH said.

Employers can better mitigate work-related psychosocial hazards by focusing on altering working conditions rather than implementing individually tailored psychosocial supports, NIOSH stated.

“Organizational-level solutions approaches are likely to be more effective, have broader impact, and be more sustainable,” NIOSH wrote.