Click here to read the entire report: Complete State of the Line Presentation from AIS 2012
Friday, May 11, 2012
Unsustainable
Click here to read the entire report: Complete State of the Line Presentation from AIS 2012
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
EPA to Discuss Plans for Addressing Contaminated Passaic River Sediment
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will discuss plans to address high levels of contaminants, including PCBs, mercury and dioxin, which are present in Passaic River mud adjacent to Riverside Park in Lyndhurst, New Jersey. Dioxin causes serious health effects, including cancer. PCBs are suspected carcinogens and mercury can cause serious damage to the nervous system. Steps are being taken under the Superfund program by the EPA to isolate and prevent movement of the contaminants from this area to other parts of the river. EPA is overseeing technical planning that has been initiated by the parties potentially responsible for the contamination. Superfund is the federal cleanup program established in 1980 to investigate and clean up the country’s most hazardous waste sites. The Superfund program operates on the principle that polluters should pay for the cleanups, rather than passing the costs to taxpayers. When sites are placed on the Superfund list, the EPA looks for parties responsible for the pollution and requires them to pay for the cleanups. Cleanups are only funded by taxpayer dollars when the responsible parties cannot be found or are not financially viable.
In the long term, risks to people wading in contaminated mud in the Passaic River alongside Riverside Park are slightly above EPA levels of concern. The EPA recommends that the public avoid wading in the mud flats in Lyndhurst.
The EPA will hold two public meetings on May 9 to discuss the planned cleanup actions and the results of recent sampling efforts in Riverside Park and the adjacent mud flats. The public meetings will be held from 3 PM to 5 PM and again from 7 PM to 9 PM in the court room of Lyndhurst Town Hall located at 367 Valleybrook Avenue.
The EPA estimates that cleanup work in the contaminated mud flats adjacent to Riverside County Park in Lyndhurst could begin in spring 2013 and extend for a period of time into summer 2013. The EPA will work closely with local officials, river and park users, the Passaic River Community Advisory Group, stakeholder organizations and the Lyndhurst community to provide information on these plans, coordinate the cleanup, and minimize possible disruptions to river and park use to the extent possible.
The EPA is overseeing a comprehensive investigation of contamination in the Passaic River that is being carried out by a group of parties potentially responsible for the contamination. Preliminary findings suggest that there could be six to eight additional mud flats in the Newark Bay to Garfield stretch of the river where elevated levels of contamination could warrant a closer look and possible action. While the EPA does not anticipate that the other mud flats present an immediate threat to recreational users of the park or river, it is working with the potentially responsible parties to plan additional sampling out of an abundance of caution. Those detailed sampling plans are being developed now to examine the mud flat areas.
Results from the latest round of mud flat sampling from this past winter are currently undergoing final review by the EPA. Any follow-up sampling deemed necessary by the EPA will likely take place under EPA oversight later this summer or fall, with results expected back in late 2012. EPA will provide the public with the sampling results as the information becomes available and will ensure that all communities are effectively engaged and informed.
Very low levels of PCBs, mercury and dioxin were found earlier this year in soil in the Lyndhurst and North Arlington sections of Riverside Park that likely were carried there by flooding. The concentrations of contaminants detected are well below established levels of concern for children and adolescents playing in the park and for workers maintaining the park. The EPA does not plan on additional sampling of the parks’ recreational areas and cleanup in the park is not necessary. The public can continue to enjoy using Riverside County Park in Lyndhurst but should practice proper hygiene that would normally be followed at any urban park that is prone to flooding.
Information on the investigation and cleanup activities in the lower Passaic River is available on the project Web sites at http://www.ourpassaic.org or http://www.epa.gov/region02/superfund/npl/diamondalkali/
Follow EPA Region 2 on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/eparegion2 and visit our Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/eparegion2.
For over 3 decades the Law Offices of Jon L. Gelman 1.973.696.7900 jon@gelmans.com have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered work related accident and injuries.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Facebook, Organ Donations and Medical Privacy of Workers' Compensation
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| (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Click here to read "Facebook’s New “Organ Donor” Feature: Many Applaud It, but Some Raise Possible Concerns About Protecting Private Health Information"
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Friday, May 4, 2012
Federal Court Rules That Bankruptcy Court May Transfer Insurance Assets to Trust
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a Bankruptcy Court is permitted to transfer insurance assets to a trust despite policy prohibitions.
"Federal–Mogul Global and its affiliates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and sought to resolve asbestos-related liability through the creation of a personal-injury trust under 11 U.S.C. § 524(g). As part of its reorganization plan, it sought to transfer rights under insurance liability policies to the trust. Appellants Insurers had provided liability policies to the debtors prior to bankruptcy and objected that the transfer violated the policies' anti-assignment provisions. Federal–Mogul contended that 11 U.S.C. § 1123(a)(5)(B) preempts those provisions, and the bankruptcy and district courts agreed. We will affirm."
"In sum, section 524 trusts are the only national statutory scheme extant to resolve asbestos litigation through a quasi-administrative process. In function, the trusts are similar to workers' compensation or other administrative remedies that employ valuation grids to compensate injuries, subject to individualized and judicial review. Unlike those schemes, the trusts place the authority to adjudicate claims in private rather than public hands, a difference that has at times given us and other observers pause, since it endows potentially interested parties with considerable authority."
In re Federal-Mogul Global
--- F.3d ----, 2012 WL 1511773
C.A.3 (Del.),2012.
May 01, 2012
"Federal–Mogul Global and its affiliates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and sought to resolve asbestos-related liability through the creation of a personal-injury trust under 11 U.S.C. § 524(g). As part of its reorganization plan, it sought to transfer rights under insurance liability policies to the trust. Appellants Insurers had provided liability policies to the debtors prior to bankruptcy and objected that the transfer violated the policies' anti-assignment provisions. Federal–Mogul contended that 11 U.S.C. § 1123(a)(5)(B) preempts those provisions, and the bankruptcy and district courts agreed. We will affirm."
"In sum, section 524 trusts are the only national statutory scheme extant to resolve asbestos litigation through a quasi-administrative process. In function, the trusts are similar to workers' compensation or other administrative remedies that employ valuation grids to compensate injuries, subject to individualized and judicial review. Unlike those schemes, the trusts place the authority to adjudicate claims in private rather than public hands, a difference that has at times given us and other observers pause, since it endows potentially interested parties with considerable authority."
In re Federal-Mogul Global
--- F.3d ----, 2012 WL 1511773
C.A.3 (Del.),2012.
May 01, 2012
Sidetracked By Drugs
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| New York Mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The focus of major employer and insurance initiatives of so-called reform legislation in multiple jurisdictions has been to reduce the delivery of prescriptive pain relief. Actually, that is an enforcement issue only that globally exists in the health care industry. New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is working diligently to identify and database the few prescribers and physicians involved. A national effort modeled after the New York process would go a long way to curtain excessive and unorthodox prescriptions.
To use the prescription drug abuse issue to attack workers' compensation generally is merely sidetracking the real problem with the medical delivery system which is the global denial of compensability of workers' compensation claims by employers and insurance carriers merely to delay and avoid payment of medical benefits.
The recent decision in Federal Court recognizing RICO violations by an insurance carrier, the employer medical expert, and the employer itself, puts the real focus on the problem. That decision demonstrates the need to get the workers' compensation train back on the tracks and redirect the system so that it pays benefits to injured workers in an efficient and timely basis.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
US Department of Labor recovers $4.83 million in back wages, damages for more than 4,500 Wal-Mart workers
Misapplied exemption resulted in pay violations; nearly $464,000 assessed in penalties
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., headquartered in Bentonville, Ark., has agreed to pay $4,828,442 in back wages and damages to more than 4,500 employees nationwide following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division that found violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act's overtime provisions. Additionally, Wal-Mart will pay $463,815 in civil money penalties.
The violations affected current and former vision center managers and asset protection coordinators at Wal-Mart Discount Stores, Wal-Mart Supercenters, Neighborhood Markets and Sam's Club warehouses. Wal-Mart failed to compensate these employees with overtime pay, considering them to be exempt from the FLSA's overtime requirements. The Labor Department's investigation found that the employees are nonexempt and consequently due overtime pay for any hours worked beyond 40 in a week.
"Misclassification of employees as exempt from FLSA coverage is a costly problem with adverse consequences for employees and corporations," said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. "Let this be a signal to other companies that when violations are found, the Labor Department will take appropriate action to ensure that workers receive the wages they have earned."
Under the terms of the settlement, Wal-Mart has agreed to pay all back wages the department determined are owed for the violations plus an equal amount in liquidated damages to the employees. The FLSA provides that employers who violate the law are, as a general rule, liable to employees for back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages. The civil money penalties assessed stem from the repeat nature of the violations. Wal-Mart, which operates more than 3,900 establishments in the United States, corrected its classification practices for these workers in 2007, and negotiation over the back pay issues has been ongoing since that time. A third-party administrator will disburse the payments to the affected employees.
"Our department has been working with Wal-Mart for a long time to reach this agreement," said Nancy J. Leppink, deputy administrator of the Wage and Hour Division. "I am very pleased that staff in our Southwest region persevered, ensured these employees will be paid the back wages they are owed and brought this case to conclusion. Thanks to this resolution, thousands of employees will see money put back into their pockets that should have been there all along. The damages and penalties assessed in this case should put other employers on notice that they cannot avoid their obligations to their employees by inappropriately classifying their workers as exempt."
The FLSA provides an exemption from both minimum wage and overtime pay requirements for individuals employed in bona fide executive, administrative, professional and outside sales positions, as well as certain computer employees. To qualify for exemption, employees generally must meet certain tests regarding their job duties and be paid on a salary basis at not less than $455 per week. Job titles do not determine exempt status. In order for an exemption to apply, an employee's specific job duties and salary must meet all the requirements of the department's regulations.
The FLSA requires that covered, nonexempt employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 for all hours worked, plus time and one-half their regular rates, including commissions, bonuses and incentive pay, for hours worked beyond 40 per week. Employers also are required to maintain accurate time and payroll records.
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Delay By Worker Does Not Give Rise To Legal Malpractice
A Court has held that if an injured worker fails to act in a timely fashion and retain counsel, the law firm ultimately retained cannot be held responsible for not filing a claim in a timely fashion. While a law firm has several responsibilities including: careful investigation of a claim, formulation of a legal strategy, filing of the appropriate papers, and maintenance of communication with a client, the firm cannot be held responsible for the delay incurred by the injured worker.
Millar v Del Sardo, et al., Docket No. A-4386-10T1 (NJ App Div 2012)
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Millar v Del Sardo, et al., Docket No. A-4386-10T1 (NJ App Div 2012)
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