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(c) 2010-2026 Jon L Gelman, All Rights Reserved.

Thursday, May 21, 2026

Ebola: A Global Workers' Peril

A deadly new chapter in the decades-long struggle against Ebola has arrived. On May 16, 2026, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), its highest level of alarm, as the Bundibugyo virus (BVD) rapidly spread across northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and crossed the border into Uganda. With no approved vaccine and no targeted therapeutics, this rapidly spreading, often fatal hemorrhagic fever poses an urgent, underappreciated threat to workers around the globe, particularly those in healthcare settings.

Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Thursday, May 14, 2026

SIF, PEOs, and Ethics

On May 13, 2026, the New Jersey workers' compensation bar gathered for the annual May Day Seminar, a three-hour intensive legal education covering some of the most pressing and financially consequential issues in the practice. The topics: the Second Injury Fund (SIF) credit debate, the chaos of PEO coverage litigation, and the ethics landmines embedded in the insurer/employer/attorney triangle. What follows is a practitioner's guide to the issues presented, the law as it now stands, and what you need to do about it.

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Sexual Harassment Survives Dismissal

A federal court in New Jersey has issued a significant ruling at the intersection of employment discrimination law, workers' compensation, and workplace harassment. In Matthews v. United Airlines, Inc., Judge Brian R. Martinotti of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey denied, in substantial part, defendants' motion to dismiss, allowing a flight ramp employee's claims of sexual harassment, hostile work environment, and retaliation to proceed under both Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD). The decision carries important implications for workers in New Jersey who suffer harassment on the job and then find themselves further victimized by retaliatory termination.

Sunday, May 10, 2026

Single Payer’s Workers’ Compensation Gamble

For more than a decade, this blog has tracked what I have called “The Path to Federalization,” the steady, incremental expansion of federal authority over what was once an exclusively state-run workers’ compensation system. From the World Trade Center Health Program in 2010 to the Affordable Care Act’s Libby Care pilot, from Supreme Court validation of the individual mandate in 2012 to the Medicare Secondary Payer offset debate, each chapter has added a new stone to that path. California’s 2026 gubernatorial race is laying the boldest stone yet.