The Jungle Called Workers’ Comp

Almost a century ago Upton Sinclair authored The Jungle. It is the story of the dangerous work of the meatpacking industry. In a very comprehensive report, “The Speed Kills You,” published by Nebraska Appleseed 2009, the stark realities of the failures of the workers’ compensation system are exposed.

Nebraska Appleseed (Appleseed) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, public interest law project.  Their principles: “core values, common ground, and equal justice,” guide their mission. Appleseed recruited many scholars, professionals, and community leaders, to assist in the production of the report.

The failings described by the report, while targeted to Nebraska’s meatpacking industry, have universal application and the consequences dramatically reveal the domino effect of an imploding system that has been run off the road and been flung into the ditch.

Appleseed reports that in Nebraska, where 20% of the US meat is processed, the workplace remains a jungle.  After conducting an extensive survey, with input from both employers, employees, academicians and practitioners, the non-profit group reported that deadly speed on the meat packaging line has resulted in an increase in the amount of injuries that go unreported because of employees’ fear of harassment by employers.

The meatpackers, many undocumented workers, suffer from repetitive motion injures caused by working in awkward positions all day.  Their language barrier, lack of knowledge of legal remedies, unfamiliarity with workers’ compensation benefit procedures, further complicate their ability to seek redress.

The noble goals envisioned by the national workers’ compensation system were to provide a summary and remedial benefit to injured workers. The cost of benefits was to be passed onto to the consumer. Safety was not addressed. Unfortunately, it is not a punitive system geared to make the workplace safer. Since its inception in 1911, it has lacked the necessary elements to create an economic incentive for employers to increase safety in the workplace.

The issues identified by the Nebraska study are mirrored throughout the country. Employees lack adequate information about the workers’ compensation, they continue to be subjected to poor ergonomic conditions, inspections by OSHA have been few and far between, and discrimination against employees and a challenge to their dignity continues. There are few penalties imposed against employers for delay and denial of claims. The system has become convoluted, dilatory, and litigious in nature. It now forces an employee to battle a system that blames them for getting hurt.

The workers’ compensation jungle described by the Appleseed report must finally be tamed. Employees should no longer be treated merely as beasts of burden. Injured workers should have their dignity restored. The Appleseed recommendations should be addressed and the entire system, including medical benefit delivery, be improved. To make the workplace jungle safer, employers must be held accountable for the unreasonable actions taken only for their pecuniary gain.
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To read more about medical benefits & workers' compensation click here.

Jordan Barab Named Acting OSHA Chief

Jordan Barab has been named Deputy Assistant Secretary for OSHA and Acting Assistant Secretary effective April 13, 2009. Barab has been an outstanding spokesperson for injured workers and was author of the well known and influential blog Confined Space. Internationally recognized as a stronger advocate for worker safety, his incredible advocacy for a safer work environment has been a hallmark of leadership. 

The AFL-CIO reported:

Peg Seminario, the AFL-CIO’s director for safety and health, says Barab is an “excellent choice” for OSHA deputy assistant secretary. 

He has decades of experience in safety and health working in the labor movement, at OSHA and in the House of Representatives on a broad range of issues. He has a deep commitment and dedication to protecting workers and will bring to OSHA the kind of energy and leadership that is sorely needed to move the agency in a new direction.

Putting Workers First - A Proposed Agenda for the Obama Administration

The Center for American Progress will host a program  on Tuesday, December 8, 2008 to discuss how the Obama Administration may immediately improve upon the Bush's administration's poor track record for the ordinary American worker.

9:00 - 10:30 a.m.

Panel I: Enforcing Change: Strategies for the Obama Administration to Enforce Workers' Rights at the Department of Labor
Jordan Barab, Senior Labor Policy Advisor, Committee on Education and Labor, U.S. House of Representatives
Kim Bobo, Founder and Executive Director, Interfaith Worker Justice 
Thomas E. Perez, Secretary, Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation 
Catherine K. Ruckelshaus, Litigation Director, National Employment Law Project
Karla Walter, Policy Analyst, American Worker Project, Center for American Progress Action Fund

Moderated by:
David Madland, Director, American Worker Project, Center for American Progress Action Fund

10:30 - 11:00 a.m.
Keynote Address:
Governor Jon Corzine (D-NJ)

11:00 - 12:00
Panel II: Making Federal Contracting Work for the United States
Scott Amey, General Counsel, Project on Government Oversight
Margaret Daum, Counsel, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
Richard C. Loeb, University of Baltimore School of Law
David Madland, Director, American Worker Project, Center for American Progress Action Fund

Moderated by:
Scott Lilly, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress Action Fund

Labor Day: Miller Launches Map of Workplace Fatalities

This Labor Day, Let's Redouble Effort to Improve Worker Safety, Says Chairman Miller Miller also launches interactive map of workplace fatalities

WASHINGTON, D.C. - To honor America's workers this Labor Day, the country should commit to stopping the preventable toll of workplace deaths, injuries, and illnesses that affects workers across industries and occupations each year, said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. To highlight the dangers that many American workers face on the job, Miller today launched a new interactive online map
(http://edlabor.house.gov/issues/workerdeaths.shtml) that enables people to learn about many of the workplace fatalities that have occurred in their own communities this year.

"Each year, thousands of American workers die on the job. Sixteen workers are killed in workplace accidents each day. Ten times that many die of occupational diseases caused b y hazardous substances like asbestos. And every 2.5 seconds, a worker is injured in the United States," said Miller. "This grim toll includes construction workers, public safety workers, and workers at chemical facilities and oil refineries. It includes people who spend most of their time working outdoors, as well as people who work inside office buildings, manufacturing plants, and stores. It in cludes young and old workers. There are simply too many American workers, from all walks of life, who get injured, sick, or killed on the job. On this Labor Day, we should commit ourselves to doing everything we can to improve safety in the workplace."

On August 9, the U.S. Labor Department reported that 5,703 workers died in workplace accidents in 2006. Today, Miller launched an online map of worker fatalities that he hoped would remind Americans of the urgent need for increased efforts to eliminate unsafe conditions on the job. The map relies on published news reports in 2007 to show worker fatalities
nationwide, and it includes information about the workers' occupations and causes of death. The map represents roughly 10 percent of the total number of on-the-job fatalities so far this year.
"The tragedy at Utah's Crandall Canyon Mine reminds us of the dangers that too many workers face every day. It is my hope that the launch of this map will help policymakers and the public understand the extent of workplace fatalities in this country and the importance of acting aggressively to improve workplace safety," said Miller.

Earlier this year, U.S. Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), chairwoman of the House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, and U.S. Rep. Phil Hare (D-IL), a member of the subcommittee, introduced legislation to reduce workplace fatalities, injuries, and sicknesses. The Protecting America's Work ers Act (H.R. 2049) would boost workplace safety by strengthening and expanding the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Specifically, the legislation would:
Apply federal safety standards to workers who are not currently covered, including federal, state, and local employees, and some private sector employees;
Increase penalties against employers for repeated and willful violations of the law, including making felony charges available when an employer's repeated and willful violation of the law leads to a worker's de ath or serious injury;

Better protect workers who blow the whistle on unsafe workplace conditions;
Enhance the public's right to know about safety violations; and
Make clear that employers must provide the necessary safety equipment to their workers, such as goggles, gloves, respirators, or other personal protective equipment.
Miller also said that the Bush administration must do more to vigorously enforce workplace safety laws.

"In hearings held earlier this year, witnesses told the committee that both the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration are not doing enough to update basic workplace safety standards and that the agencies have shifted their focus from enforcing the law to providing companies with so-called voluntary compliance assistance," said Miller. "It is well past time that the Bush workplace safety agencies stop fiddling while workers die. They must aggressively enforce the laws they swore to uphold. We must do more to defend the right of all workers to a safe workplace."

To visit the map, click here.: http://edlabor.house.gov/issues/workerdeaths.shtml

For more information about the Protecting America's Workers Act, click here.
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/speech/edlabor_dem/rel042607.html

For more information about worker safety issues, click here.
http://edlabor.house.gov/issues/workersafety.shtml

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Jon L. Gelman, Attorney at Law
1450 Valley Road, 1st Floor
PO Box 934Wayne NJ 07474-0934
973 696-7900 tel - 973 696-7988 fax
www.gelmans.com