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Showing posts with label Wisconsin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wisconsin. Show all posts

Friday, July 18, 2014

Healthcare workers killed by Ebola’s worst outbreak ever

The global trade union federation Public Services International condemns the preventable deaths of dozens of healthcare workers, killed on the job by Ebola because they did not have the necessary tools and equipment.
The current Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone is the worst ever and the first to spill widely across several countries.  Ebola has no cure, but can be diagnosed and treated. Treatment requires intensive care and close contact between the patient and the healthcare worker.
Treatment can save lives, but should not kill healthcare workers!
It is a tragic reminder to national and international authorities that basic public health requires adequate investment both in healthcare workers and in health infrastructure to fight disease outbreaks of this kind.
Rosa Pavanelli, PSI General Secretary, warned: “We cannot accept pitiful excuses, whether from health ministers or donor agencies.  Health workers must have the tools to do their jobs.  All whose work brings them in contact with Ebola victims must have the protective gear.  Our members are dying because of unsafe working conditions, this is criminal neglect.”
The chair of PSI’s West African Health Sector Unions’ Network (WAHSUN), Dr Ayuba Wabba said: “We demand that Ministries of Health, the World Health Organization and the West African Health Organization:
  • Implement best practice guidelines for Ebola for all health facilities, including full...
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Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Wisconsin Supreme Court Hears Arguments on Collective Bargaining Law

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.nytimes.com

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Monday heard arguments on the constitutionality of a 2011 law that all but eliminated collective bargaining for most public employees.
The law, which prompted large protests and thrust the Republican administration of Gov. Scott Walker into the national spotlight, has divided the state along partisan lines for more than two years. The latest battle has centered largely on a broad legal question: Can state lawmakers so significantly curtail collective bargaining that union membership is made less desirable?
“I don’t believe the two ships pass in the night,” J. B. Van Hollen, the attorney general of Wisconsin, said when asked by a judge about the dueling legal theories. “I believe they collide.”
Mr. Van Hollen argued that group bargaining was not a constitutional guarantee but rather a “benefit” permitted by lawmakers. He added that he believed state officials had a “bigger ship” and would win in the end.
The law, which led to a failed attempt to remove Mr. Walker from office last year, has been challenged by a teachers union in Madison and by a labor group representing employees of the city of Milwaukee. Both plaintiffs contend that the measure violates freedom of association rights and equal protection of the law by subjecting unionized public employees to burdens not faced by their nonunion colleagues.
“If you are an employee and you choose to associate in this activity, you will be...
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Monday, September 30, 2013

Will history of health hazards be repeated at new Wisconsin iron mine?

Today's post was shared from The Pump Handle....

The long-time residents of Iron County, Wisconsin who make up the Iron County Joint Impacts Mining Committee say the open-pit iron mine planned for the Penokee Hills of northern Wisconsin – a range that extends into Michigan where it’s known as the Gogebic Range – will bring much needed good jobs and economic development. Such jobs, the committee told a group of visiting journalists in August, have been lacking since the last Wisconsin iron mines in the area closed in the early and mid-1960s.

The jobs the mine would bring are the type needed to keep local communities’ young people from moving away, said committee members. Environmental advocates and other area residents, including many of the region’s tribal leaders, oppose the mine for what they say will be devastating impacts, particularly to the area’s waterways and wetlands.

The proposed mine made national news this summer after masked activists harassed mining company personnel and armed security guards were hired to patrol the property. There’s also been considerable controversy over a new law that was passed that will help facilitate the mine. What have not yet received much attention are the potential occupational health hazards of mining and processing the taconite ore the mine is expected to yield.

Now in the permitting and exploratory stage of development by Gogebic Taconite LLC – a subsidiary of a company called Foresight Energy that has coal mining operations in...
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Monday, September 16, 2013

Legislators consider workers’ comp changes

Wisconsin Republicans look toward limiting workers' compensation benefits.Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from lacrossetribune.com


Wisconsin surgeons performing the same arthroscopic knee surgery on two groups of patients in recent years collected on average $1,573 from one group and $3,728 from the other.

The difference? The lower amount came from those with a group health insurance policy, while the higher amount came from those injured on the job and covered under the state’s workers’ compensation system.

The price discrepancy, reported in a recent study of medical payments in Wisconsin, is fueling discussion about the cost to businesses of workers’ comp insurance. In an unusual move, several Republican lawmakers are considering changes to the system.

Wisconsin’s workers’ compensation system is considered one of the best in the country. Injured workers can access quality health care and return to work quickly, keeping costs low.

The average duration of workers’ comp benefits is 60 days, the shortest of all the states and half the national average, according to recently published data from the National Council on Compensation Insurance.

Typically the state’s Workers’ Compensation Advisory Council, with representation from management and labor, sets workers’ comp policy by bargaining changes and recommending bills to the Legislature. Lawmakers often adopt the proposals without changes in order to insulate the system from political swings in leadership
But Republican legislators led by Rep. Dan Knodl, R-Germantown, are reviewing of the issue as part of...
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Sunday, September 1, 2013

14 Worker Struggles To Pay Attention To This Labor Day

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from blog.workingamerica.org

Sure, to some people #LaborDayIs about barbecues and fashion rules. But #LaborDayIs also about, you know, labor. Today, workers across the country are struggling for decent wages, safe workplaces, affordable healthcare, and even basic civil rights.

North Carolina’s Moral Monday

North Carolina's Moral Monday
North Carolina's Moral Monday

Gov. Pat McCrory (R-NC) and the North Carolina legislature have passed huge cuts to state unemployment insurance, an overhaul of the state tax code, big education cuts and the nation’s strictest voting restrictions. Lead by the NC NAACP’s Rev. William Barber, North Carolinans of all stripes have gathered by the thousands to for huge weekly “Moral Monday” protests to stand up to Gov. McCrory’s agenda.

Learn more about Moral Monday and check out some sweet protest photos.
Oh and thanks to @sherierb for the thumbnail photo.

The Wisconsin Solidarity Singers


The Wisconsin Solidarity Singers
The Wisconsin Solidarity Singers

After the huge protests in 2011 against Wisconsin’s new collective bargaining restrictions, Gov. Scott Walker and his allies changed the rules at the state Capitol Building in Madison, requiring protesters to have permits. His reasoning? Um, none.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Employer Co-Op Pays OSHA Fines after 26 Industry Employee Deaths

US Labor Department's OSHA reaches settlement with Wisconsin-based Cooperative Plus to improve grain bin safety training, abate hazards Cooperative to pay $550,000 in penalties for grain violations

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has filed a settlement agreement with the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission between the agency and Cooperative Plus Inc., after the farmer-owned Wisconsin cooperative agreed to pay $550,000 in penalties, increase employee grain bin safety training and abate all safety issues at its grain handling facilities in Whitewater, Burlington, East Troy and Genoa City.

"At least 26 workers were killed in grain entrapments nationwide last year, the highest number of any year since researchers started collecting data in 1978, but there are well-known safety practices that can be implemented to prevent these tragedies," said Mike Connors, OSHA's regional administrator in Chicago. "We are pleased to reach this agreement. The procedures and training that Cooperative Plus agreed to implement will ensure that these often deadly entrapments will not happen again."

As part of the settlement agreement, Cooperative Plus will provide site-specific training for all employees exposed to potential hazards identified by OSHA's grain handling, permit-required confined space and lockout standards. The cooperative also will schedule confined space and bin entry rescue drills semiannually, and provide 10 hours of training to newly hired and current employees whose duties expose them to potential hazards addressed by these standards.

Additionally, the cooperative will develop and implement a program to manage the risk of grain handling that includes safe methods to inspect grain and dislodge clumps of grain to empty the bin; develop lockout/tagout procedures for augers, conveyors and other equipment prior to bin entry; and develop engineering controls to abate hazards posed by bridged and castled grain. The company will audit work to ensure that all employees are properly trained in program rules and OSHA safety standards.

Finally, the company agreed to retain at least one independent safety consultant and to comply with OSHA follow-up inspections over a two-year period.

OSHA cited Cooperative Plus Inc. for a total of 14 willful, 23 serious and two other-than-serious safety violations in August 2010 for lacking proper equipment and procedures, thereby exposing workers to the risk of being engulfed and suffocated in grain storage bins.

Since 2009, OSHA has fined grain operators in Wisconsin, Illinois, Colorado, South Dakota, Ohio and Nebraska following preventable fatalities and injuries. In addition to enforcement actions and training, OSHA Assistant Secretary Dr. David Michaels sent a notification letter in August 2010 to grain elevator operators warning them not to allow workers to enter grain storage facilities without proper equipment. For a copy of the letter, visit http://www.osha.gov/asst-sec/Grain_letter.html.

Burlington-headquartered Cooperative Plus has locations throughout southeastern Wisconsin, including in Clinton, East Troy, Elkhorn, Genoa City, Union Grove and Whitewater. The company has a combined member-ownership of more than 10,000 and annual sales of more than $50 million.

To ask questions, obtain compliance assistance, file a complaint, or report workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA's toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency's Milwaukee Area Office at 414-297-3315.

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA's role is to ensure these conditions for America's working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.


Friday, September 23, 2011

Bad Cases Make Bad Law

Guest Blog by Thomas M. Domer  

The Illinois legislature just passed a law in response to a notorious claim in which a Sheriff Deputy, driving more than 100 miles per hour while using his cell phone, crossed a median and slammed into a car, killing two teenage sisters.

The claim drew regional and national attention and ultimately resulted in a revision in Illinois’ workers' compensation claims that would prevent any State employee hurt at work from being eligible for workers' compensation if the injury happened during a forcible felony, an aggravated DUI, or reckless homicide, if any of those crimes killed or injured another person.

The law is much more restrictive than the initial media summaries blaring “State law bars State employees injured while committing crimes from receiving worker’s comp.”

This is another example of bad cases creating bad law. The Sheriff filed a workers' compensation claim for his injuries but an arbitrator concluded that his high speed and cell phone use was a “substantial and unjustifiable risk resulting in gross deviation” barring his claim. The Illinois legislature reacted to the media and public outcry.

In other states, notably Wisconsin, an advisory council meets annually to deal with such perceived excesses, and to change the law accordingly.

A few years ago I represented a worker who, despite his employer’s offer to re-employ him with his disability, chose instead to obtain vocational rehabilitation, which was ordered by a judge and the Commission. His claim seemed to run afoul of the express purpose of worker’s compensation in Wisconsin and other states, which is to restore the injured worker to a job.

After the case was reported, the employer and insurance carrier representatives on Wisconsin’s Advisory Council recommended (appropriately) this perceived loophole be closed, and the new law barred the employer’s liability for vocational rehabilitation benefits if the employer offered a job to the injured worker which was refused.

Since the early days of workers' compensation in Wisconsin the courts have liberally construed “in the course of employment.” Absent evidence of abandonment of employment, it is presumed employment continues, except if a deviation can be proved.

Poor judgment or negligence is not synonymous with deviation and an employee must willfully abandon job duties to be excluded. If an employee is injured while engaging in an activity and disobedience of an order of the employer solely for the employee’s own benefit, workers' compensation benefits will be denied. However, if the disobedient actions were in furtherance of the employer’s interest rather than the employee’s, compensation is granted.

As one workers' compensation veteran judge has noted, “even bad employees get compensation.” The no-fault nature of workers' compensation sometimes produces hard-to-swallow results.

Thomas M. Domer practices in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (www.domerlaw.com). He has authored and edited several publications including the legal treatise Wisconsin Workers' Compensation Law (West) and he is the Editor of the national publication, Workers' First Watch. Tom is past chair of the Workers' Compensation Section of the American Association for Justice. He is a charter Fellow in the College of Workers' Compensation Lawyers. He co-authors the nationally recognized Wisconsin Workers' Compensation Experts.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Wisconsin and Workers' Comp "Reform"



Guest Blog by Thomas M. Domer  


Headlines screaming for “Workers’ Comp Reform” are blaring in many states (CA,FL, NY, OH, NC, and most recently IL). In Illinois, the state’s much-criticized system is under fire and legislation to totally dismantle the system is proposed. Wisconsin has thus far managed to dodge partisan efforts to scrap the system due in large part to the stabilizing effect of the Wisconsin Workers’ Comp Advisory Council. The Wisconsin Worker's Compensation Advisory Council was created in 1975 to advise the Department and legislature on policy matters concerning the development and administration of the workers' compensation law. The Council aims to maintain the overall stability of the workers' compensation system without regard to partisan changes in the legislative or executive branches of government. The Council provides a vehicle for labor and management representatives to play a direct role in recommending changes in the workers' compensation law to the legislature.

The council, composed of five labor, five management and three non-voting insurance members appointed by the secretary of the Department of Workforce Development and chaired by a department employee, meets regularly at different sites around Wisconsin. It occasionally assigns special topics to study committees on such issues as medical costs, permanent total disability rates and attorney's fees. The medical committee assigned in the mid-1990's to report on minimum permanency percentages for surgical procedures, for example, issued its findings which resulted in the schedule contained in the Administrative Code.

The Council obtains input from various workers' compensation constituents including interested members of the legal, medical, labor, management, insurance and employer communities. Public hearings on proposed changes are held, followed by Advisory Council deliberations. The Council has always produced an “agreed upon bill” which results in annual changes in benefit rates and substantive law. The bill proceeds to the Labor Committees in the Wisconsin Assembly and Senate where, after passage, the Governor signs the bill into law. (Republican Governor Scott Walker’s recent attempt to eviscerate public sector bargaining, which prompted the infamous flight to Illinois of the “Wisconsin 14” Democratic Senators, has had a “spillover” affect even on the Council. Labor members, in response to the Governor’s union-busting efforts, have boycotted the last 2 Council meetings).


Thomas M. Domer practices in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (www.domerlaw.com). He has authored and edited several publications including the legal treatise Wisconsin Workers' Compensation Law (West) and he is the Editor of the national publication, Workers' First Watch. Tom is past chair of the Workers' Compensation Section of the American Association for Justice. He is a charter Fellow in the College of Workers' Compensation Lawyers. He co-authors the nationally recognized Wisconsin Workers' Compensation Experts Blog.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Drugs, Alcohol and Mauling Bears


Guest Blog by Thomas M. Domer 

I’ve received dozens of emails and phone calls from friends and colleagues railing on the Montana court ruling granting workers’ comp benefits to a man high on pot when a grizzly mauled him at a nature park. “How ridiculous, how unfair!” rings the common theme from almost every caller. 


In response, I remind folks that the court said grizzlies are ”equal opportunity maulers”, and no proof existed that the man provoked the attack because he was high. I also remind everyone that workers’ comp is a no-fault insurance system, where concepts like “fairness” are all very relative. 

Many states, including Wisconsin, hold that if an injury results from intoxication (by alcohol or drugs) benefits are not denied, but reduced (usually by 15%) as an employee safety violation, but intoxication is not evidence of a deviation if the employee is otherwise in the course of employment. The much-heralded “Frozen Fingers” case in Wisconsin confirmed that rule, where a salesman was so drunk he couldn’t open his own door, passed out and has his frostbitten fingers amputated. Benefits were awarded, but reduced by 15%.

Thomas M. Domer practices in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (www.domerlaw.com). He has authored and edited several publications including the legal treatise Wisconsin Workers' Compensation Law (West) and he is the Editor of the national publication, Workers' First Watch. Tom is past chair of the Workers' Compensation Section of the American Association for Justice. He is a charter Fellow in the College of Workers' Compensation Lawyers. He co-authors the nationally recognized Wisconsin Workers' Compensation Experts Blog.



Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Worker's Comp, Walker, and Wisconsin’s Wailing


Guest Blog by Thomas M. Domer

What’s the connection between worker’s comp and Wisconsin Governor Walker’s assault on public sector bargaining rights? The immediate effect is that public sector workers will earn less money, and when hurt on the job, get less worker’s comp benefits. Over the longer term, denying the unions’ right to bargain over health benefits and working conditions will have significant effects.

Many public sector workers (cops, firefighters, teachers, city and county workers), will fall into the “no health insurance” heap that affects many private sector employees currently. When their claims are denied by the self-insured employer (the city, county, or school district), employees will not be able to get timely needed medical care for their injuries. And, to be sure, cities, counties and school districts will be under tons of political pressure to tighten their belts and budgets by denying claims with greater frequency. Lastly, since unions won’t be able to bargain over working conditions, safety issues will arise at a predictably larger rate. Workers will be at risk by the “corner-cutting” measures put in place by the budget slashing, no tax increase political mandate the ruling party possesses.


Thomas M. Domer practices in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (www.domerlaw.com). He has authored and edited several publications including the legal treatise Wisconsin Workers' Compensation Law (West) and he is the Editor of the national publication, Workers' First Watch. Tom is past chair of the Workers' Compensation Section of the American Association for Justice. He is a charter Fellow in the College of Workers' Compensation Lawyers. He co-authors the nationally recognized Wisconsin Workers' Compensation Experts Blog.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Obama Care for All

Over half our injured worker clients do not have health insurance. Many work for employers who do not provide health insurance, and they simply cannot afford private insurance on meager wages.

Since workers do not have group health insurance coverage, they are denied access to the medical care they need when their injury claims are denied by the worker's compensation insurer. And their claims are routinely denied based on the comp carrier's "hired gun" adverse medical examiner or reviewer. Understandably, hospitals and doctors, who have "bottom line" issues to face, will not provide treatment without some assurance of "upfront" payment, leaving injured workers in the lurch.

Wisconsin injured workers are fortunate that our State law provides a potential remedy for "prospective treatment"; a judge can order a worker's compensation insurance company to pay for treatment (including diagnostic testing, surgery, etc.). But the time lapse in waiting for a hearing (40-6 months) and inevitable insurance company appeal (another potential 6-8 months), realistically means that necessary treatment goes wanting. Injured workers without some insurance alternative to workers compensation suffer while waiting for treatment. Universal health insurance coverage provides an answer to this dilemma.

Thomas M. Domer practices in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (www.domerlaw.com). He has authored and edited several publications including the legal treatise Wisconsin Workers' Compensation Law (West) and  he is the Editor of the national publication, Workers' First Watch. Tom is past chair of the Workers' Compensation Section of the American Association for Justice.  He is a charter Fellow in the College of Workers' Compensation Lawyers. He co-authors the nationally recognized Wisconsin Workers' Compensation Experts Blog.