Outsourcing is the New Carve Out for Government

The economic consequences of the Depression of 2007 is causing a huge drop in governmental employment and a rebound of that job market is not anticipated in the foreseeable future. In order to save payroll costs, including the expense of workers’ compensation benefits, governmental entities are looking to privatization to avoid expenses. A pattern of furloughing staff, laying off employees and eventually outsourcing work, is the present trend.  This pattern mirrors the original workers’ compensation carve out provisions utilized to lower costs originated by Bechtel and other large employers.

Click here for more information on how Jon L Gelman can assist you in a claim for workers' Compensation claim benefits. You may e-mail Jon  Gelman or call 1-973-696-7900.

Workers Compensation Takes a Bigger Bite Out of the Big Apple

The Workers' Compensation costs for the City of New York are trending upward while the number of cases are declining. In its latest yearly report on Workers Compensation costs it was revealed that in 2009 $12.9 Million were paid out to injured workers in 14,430 cases. Uniformed employees, ie. fire and police, are not covered under the workers' compensation.


Click here to read more about workers' compensation and claims for benefits. 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 asbestos related illnesses.

Lung Cancer Risk High Despite Absence of Asbestosis Diagnosis

Asbestos workers continue to have a higher risk for lung cancer even if asbestos findings are not present on x-ray. A recent report in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine concludes, "Workers from an Ontario asbestos-cement factory who did not have radiographic asbestosis at 20 or 25 years from first exposure to asbestos continued to have an increased risk of death from lung cancer during an additional 12 years of follow-up." 


Click here to read more about workers' compensation and claims for benefits. 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 asbestos related illnesses.

Getting the Right Count on Injured Workers--Self-Reporting

The massive underreporting of occupational injuries and illness has been a major focus of concern in the evaluation of the true efficiency of the present patch work of State workers' compensation programs. A recent report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) highlights the feasibility of complementing existing occupational injury surveillance through the use of population-based surveys.


The report concludes that, "....additional research is needed to understand the reasons for nonpayment of worker-reported occupational injuries by workers' compensation insurance programs."  The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is a non-employer based data reporting system.


Click here to read the report.


Click here to read more about workers' compensation and claims for benefits. 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 asbestos related illnesses.

New Jersey Task Force Recommends Privatization of Workers Compensation

A NJ Task Force has recommended to Governor Chris Christie that workers' compensation should be privatized in the State. The Task Force looked to the West Virginia system in making its recommendation.


"West Virginia Governor Joseph Manchin signed a law in 2005 fully privatizing the state's Workers' Compensation Commission, transforming it into a private insurance carrier, BrickStreet Insurance. Since the completion of the process in 2008, workers' compensation rates have declined an average of 30 percent statewide, translating to more than $150 million in annual employer savings. BrickStreet—formerly the state monopoly—is now competing for business in other states."

The State of New Jersey, like other major industrial states, is suffering from major economic deficits that have resulted n curtailed state services including the furlough of Workers' Compensation staffs and closing of offices. The state's financial woes are mirrored in the local municipalities and it is anticipated that those governmental entities will also follow the State's lead to jettison the administration of workers' compensation programs. In california some localities have gone even further and privatized their staffs to lower costs.

Click here to read the complete report.

Click here to read more about workers' compensation and claims for benefits. For over 3 decades the Law Offices of Jon L. Gelman1.973.696.7900 jon@gelmans.com  have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered asbestos related illnesses.

Is the Cosmetic Industry the Next Tobacco or Asbestos?

Do You Want a Toxic Manicure?

The health dangers emanating from the unregulated cosmetic industry are becoming more apparent and more tragic. The serious health consequences of exposures flowing from the cosmetic industry may generate the next wave of mass tort litigation based on the predictability of emerging workers' compensation trends. 


Within the past few weeks, the carcinogenic properties of sunscreen products, which are advertised to inhibit cancer, have been reported to possibly causing it themselves. The generic and plan properties of the sun screens have been polluted by the carcinogenic properties of fragrances that have been reported to cause cancer themselves.


The Safe Cosmetics Act, now under consideration by Congress, will help protect workers' health.  The proposed legislation would establish a Center for Postmarket Drug Safety and Effectiveness.


Additionally,  The Protection America's Workers Act provides additional safeguards to workers. Thhe proposed legislation will:


*Expand workplace protections to state, county, municipal, and federal
employees who are not currently covered by the Occupational Safety and
Health Act

* Increase financial penalties for those who kill or endanger workers

* Strengthen criminal penalties to make felony charges available
for willful negligence causing death or serious injury

* Expand OSHA coverage to millions of employees who fall through
the cracks (like airline and railroad workers)

* Provide protection for whistleblowers

* Give employees the right to refuse hazardous work that may kill them

* Improve the rights of workers and families, requiring OSHA to
investigate all cases of death

* Prohibit employers from discouraging reporting of injury or illness

The Cosmetics industry has far too long relied upon a self-insurance schema and a lobbying effort  to protect its fortunes and not its workers. Emerging litigation in the workers' compensation arena traditionally explodes into mass torts. This has been the historical pattern evidenced by asbestos, tobacco and latex. The initial claims have already been successfully prosecuted for injured workers exposed to fragrances. Hopefully the next wave can be avoided and quick government regulation of the cosmetic and fragrance industry can avoid the inevitable and the workplace can be made safer.


Click here to read more about cosmetics and fragrances and workers compensation.


Click here for more information on how Jon L Gelman can assist you in a claim for workers' Compensation claim benefits. You may e-mail Jon  Gelman or call 1-973-696-7900.

How to Register for the NIOSH Oil Spill Workers Voluntary Roster for Health Monitoring

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is developing a voluntary roster of response workers to create a record of those who have participated in cleanup activities and a mechanism to contact them about possible work-related symptoms of illness or injury, as needed. The Unified Command and BP support the roster and the goal of identifying all workers, including volunteers, involved in all response/cleanup activities. Workers have the opportunity to be rostered during training and at established staging areas (locations to which trained workers report for duty each day) in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. NIOSH also is rostering response workers online through a secure web site. NIOSH has provided the secure link to multiple federal agencies and BP, and has asked them to refer workers to the web site to complete the rostering form electronically.

As of July 15, 2010 over 38,778 workers have registered on the NIOSH roster.

NIOSH has requested that all cleanup workers and volunteers register for the following reasons:

"We know that workers may be potentially exposed to things in an oil spill cleanup: such as oils, volatile organic compounds, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, diesel fumes, heat, noise, and heavy lifting.

"We know that training will help provide information to workers about these exposures, and we are interested in what training workers receive.

"We want to gather information from workers involved in cleanup, so that after cleanup is over, we can see if workers experienced any symptoms related to the oil spill work. Oil spill exposures may cause some workers to experience symptoms like skin rash, throat irritation and cough, and back pain. We do not know if these symptoms will occur or if they do, what will be the extent of these symptoms. We want to learn as much as we can in order to reduce symptoms now and in the future.

"Documenting symptoms in this incident may provide information that NIOSH can use to protect the health of workers in this clean up and in future clean-up efforts.

Click here for the Roster Form.

To read more about federalization and workers' compensation click here.

Click here for more information on how Jon L Gelman can assist you in a claim for workers' Compensation claim benefits. You may e-mail Jon  Gelman or call 1-973-696-7900.