Tag: Workers Comp

Oregon employers will pay an average of 6.7% less for workers compensation coverage in 2024, the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services announced Wednesday.

The decrease will mark 11 years of average reductions in the state’s pure premium rate for workers comp; rates have declined by 49% since 2015, the department said.

The National Council on Compensation Insurance, which sets rates for Oregon, attributed the latest reduction in costs to an improvement in loss experience and loss development patterns in the state, according to a statement issued by the department.

 

The U.S. Labor Department on Thursday announced it has obtained an order requiring a Wisconsin sawmill operator to make certain compliance efforts after a teen worker suffered fatal injuries this summer.

Green Bay-based Florence Hardwoods LLC must place labels and signage at its sawmill warning workers under the age of 18 about the hazards involved with using dangerous equipment.

The judicial order follows the death of a 16-year-old in June.

During its investigation, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration learned of other teens who were injured at work in separate incidents in 2021, 2022 and 2023, and they also discovered the company employed nine children ages 14 to 17 to illegally operate dangerous machinery used to process lumber.

After the 16-year-old’s death, the company terminated all employees under age 18 at its Green Bay facility and it agreed to pay $190,696 in civil penalties to resolve child labor violations, according to OSHA.

 

 

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday signed a bill that increases the minimum weekly workers compensation benefit over a three-year period.

Ms. Hochul signed S1161/A2034, which will increase the minimum weekly permanent partial disability and temporary partial disability to $275 in 2024. The minimum weekly benefit, last increased in May 2013, is currently $150.

The bill will increase the minimum benefit to $325 in 2025. 

Starting in 2026, both measures will index the minimum weekly benefit to the state’s average weekly wage — the same metric used to adjust the maximum benefit. The bill sets the minimum weekly benefit at one-fifth the average wage. If a person earns less than that, he or she would receive full wages as compensation for a covered injury.

Mario Cilento, president of the New York State AFL-CIO, said in a statement that in addition to providing a much-needed increase in work comp benefits, the indexing minimum benefits to the average wage will result in “injured workers being treated more fairly moving forward.”

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

 

Commercial auto, business owners policy, general liability, commercial property and umbrella coverages saw month-over-month increases in average premium renewal rates in August, while premium renewal rates decreased for workers compensation, according to a report Thursday from Ivans Insurance Services, a unit of Applied Systems Inc.

Commercial property renewal rates led the charge up, rising 10.56%, compared with 9.74% in July. Business owners policy had the second highest increase, up 7.84%, compared with 7.82% in July.

Commercial auto renewal rates rose 7.01%, up from 6.62% in July. Umbrella renewal rates increased 5.76%, up from 4.9%.

General liability renewal rates rose 5.61%, compared with 5.37% in July.

Workers compensation was the only line of coverage to see a premium renewal rate decrease, 1.07%, compared with a 0.52% decrease in July.                  

The Ivans monthly pricing index is based on more than 120 million data transactions across more than 34,000 agencies and 450 insurers and managing general agents, according to the report.

 

Nursing homes with unionized employees are more likely to report workplace illness and injury data to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration than nonunionized facilities, according to a report in the journal Health Affairs.

The Tuesday report, compiled by researchers from George Washington University, shows that unionization has led to increased employer compliance on illness and injury data.

The report says that typically only around 40% of nursing homes, which are considered to be highly dangerous workplaces, comply with OSHA’s requirement to report such workplace injuries and illnesses, but that figure jumps to 78% in cases where the nursing homes are unionized.

OSHA in 2016 issued a revised regulation requiring nursing home employers to give the agency report summaries of such illness and injury data, information that is then made publicly available.

The researchers said that labor unions play a large role in improving workplace safety by educating its members and monitoring workplaces, and that nonunion nursing home employees may be afraid to report on-the-job injuries.

The report says that because most nursing homes are still nonunionized, OSHA may be missing injury and illness data from some of the most dangerous workplaces in the country.

 

 

Firefighters in Connecticut who are diagnosed with cancer and meet several conditions will qualify for workers compensation benefits starting Oct. 1 under the state’s new budget, according to Gov. Ned Lamont’s office.

The law, as part of the biennial state budget for 2023-25, creates a presumption “during the review process of a workers compensation claim that a firefighter’s cancer diagnosis is a result of their hazardous jobs unless proven otherwise,” according to a statement issued Aug. 29. Lawmakers passed the budget in July, appropriating $4 million a year to a fund to help cover cancer costs for firefighters, according to state documents. 

According to the governor’s office, the presumption applies to any uniformed member of a paid municipal, state or volunteer fire department, as well as local fire marshals, deputy fire marshals, fire investigators, fire inspectors, and other classes of inspectors and investigators. They must have been on the job for at least five years and submitted to annual medical health screenings as recommended by their medical provider.

To qualify for the compensation and benefits, a firefighter must have been diagnosed with any condition of cancer affecting the brain or the skeletal, digestive, endocrine, respiratory, lymphatic, reproductive, urinary, or hematological systems. They must have had a physical examination after entering the service that failed to reveal any evidence of or a propensity for the cancer, and they must not have used cigarettes during the 15 years before the diagnosis. 

 

Retailers are reporting rising incidents of theft as regulators aim to make workplaces safe from violence — two facets of business life that caused much haggling in California over a pending bill that would have made it illegal for retailers to require workers to stop shoplifters.

S.B. 553, as amended by the California Assembly on Friday, no longer contains that provision but would require businesses to have anti-violence strategies. The change was made as a result of a “collaboration” between lawmakers and businesses, according to a spokesman for bill sponsor Sen. Dave Cortese, who did not comment on why one of the bill’s most controversial proposals was removed.

The California Retailers Association, which did not respond to requests for comment, spoke publicly against the measure, as did numerous business owners. Many said in media reports that barring employees — even trained security workers — from stopping shoplifters would encourage more theft at a time when retail “shrinkage” is at record high numbers.

According to a 2022 survey of 63 retailers by the National Retail Federation, stores lost $94.5 billion in 2021 through shrinkage, or loss of inventory due to a number of factors, with outside theft as the predominant cause.

Organized retail theft – such as when bands of shoplifters coordinate theft and act in rings — was up 26.5% in 2021 from 2020, the survey found. Eighty percent of retailers surveyed reported that the violence and aggression associated with organized incidents increased in the past year.

A number of national retailers, while reporting dips in earnings earlier this year, cited this rise in shoplifting as one reason for the declines.

Given the rise in organized theft and resulting violence in stores, safety professionals said worker safety should be paramount.

“From our perspective of employee safety, we would recommend a hands-off approach — especially when it comes to these organized rings,” said Kenna Carlsen, a Gainesville, Florida-based researcher with the National Safety Council. “They will, in a lot of instances, use threats of violence, weapons or intimidation tactics.”

Unless a worker comes from a security or loss-prevention background, where they are trained in de-escalation and understand how to approach individuals, hands-off is the most appropriate response, Ms. Carlsen said.

Several retailers contacted said they could not comment on their policies toward shoplifters.  According to the National Retail Association survey, 37.5% of respondents said employees are not allowed to intervene in shoplifting.

Mark Walls, Chicago-based vice president of client engagement at workers comp insurer Safety National Casualty Corp., said the issue is complicated for retailers, many of which already have policies in place that prohibit workers from intervening when they spot a shoplifter.

Mr. Walls noted widely reported incidents in which employees have been fired for approaching a shoplifter. Retailers have also faced lawsuits following incidents in which shoplifters have been detained by retail establishments but not charged, he added.

Retailers lobbied against the California anti-violence bill because “they want the option to have security,” Mr. Walls said. “The bill would have prohibited them from having any security at all. ….  Some of these places have designated security. So that’s why they opposed it, because then you literally couldn’t have any security.”

 

 

The Delaware Supreme Court ruled the state’s Workers’ Compensation Act permits employers and insurers to assert subrogation liens against benefits paid to injured workers through uninsured motorist policies for injuries previously compensated through comp.

In Horizon Services Inc. and Eastern Alliance Insurance Co. v. John Henry and The Cincinnati Insurance Co., decided Friday, the high court reversed a trial judge’s dismissal of a claim by Horizon that sought permission to assert a lien against any recovery injured employee John Henry obtained from other sources.

Mr. Henry, who was injured in a vehicle accident caused by a third party, received more than $584,000 in comp benefits and then settled a claim with the third party’s insurer. He reimbursed a portion of the recovery to Horizon and Eastern Alliance.

Mr. Henry later filed a separate claim for uninsured motorist benefits against Cincinnati Insurance Co., Horizon’s vehicle insurer, but Cincinnati argued the claim was barred by comp exclusive remedy.

Mr. Henry asserted exclusive remedy permits employees to recover both comp and uninsured motorist benefits.

The trial court agreed with Cincinnati and dismissed the claim.

The Delaware Supreme Court said since comp exclusive remedy doesn’t bar a worker from seeking uninsured motorist benefits it also doesn’t prohibit employers and insurers from asserting liens against third-party benefits.  

 

 

 

The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission vacated a citation and fine against building materials manufacturer Louisiana-Pacific Corp., which had been cited after a worker’s arm was injured when it was caught in a machine at a mill in Thomasville, Alabama.

In its decision announced last week, the OSHRC said the Occupational Safety and Health Administration failed to prove Louisiana-Pacific committed a serious workplace safety violation related to machine guarding and amputation hazards.

OSHA has issued the citation and a $13,643 penalty in connection with the May 2021 incident in which an employee was seriously injured when his arm was caught in a trim waste conveyor.

In vacating the citation, the review commission determined that the employee’s entry into the area surrounding the conveyor’s “ingoing nip point” was “not reasonably predictable” and that there was no evidence supervisors required workers to clean inside that area.

 

 

The owner of an Avon, Colorado, construction company whose failure to follow required federal safety standards caused a worker death in a trench collapse will be sentenced in November after pleading guilty to manslaughter in August, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced.

The plea follows a criminal referral by the U.S. Department of Labor after owner Peter Dillon and his now-defunct company, A4S LLC, refused to require the use of proper safety equipment to protect workers, which led to a worker’s death while installing a residential sewer line in Breckenridge, Colorado, according to OSHA.

After an investigation of the incident, A4S received three willful citations for not following trenching safety requirements. OSHA proposed $449,583 in penalties and placed A4S in its Severe Violator Enforcement Program.