Returning to Light-Duty Work - What, When, How and Why

Women making airplane wings, circa 1920. Seattle Municipal Archives

Today's post comes from guest author Kit Case from Causey Law Firm of Seattle, WA. Light duty issues can be a tricky area of workers' compensation law since most workers' compensation programs do not provide for a trial return to work period.

The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries encourages employers to offer light-duty positions to their injured workers - - the suggestion is written across the top of every time loss compensation order - - as early after an injury occurs as possible.  

The employer of an injured worker can offer shorter hours, a transitional job/job modifications or a new position entirely.  The pay scale can be at any rate at or above minimum wage.  In order to qualify as a valid job offer, a description of the position must be approved by a physician.  Once approved, the job must be offered, in writing, to the injured worker with specific details including the work schedule, rate of pay and person supervising the work.

If an injured worker declines a valid job offer, time loss compensation will end. 

If an injured worker declines a valid job offer, time loss compensation will end.  If the employer offers a return-to-work position that pays less than the workers’ time loss compensation rate, the worker will likely be eligible for partial compensation to make up the difference.  This benefit, called Loss of Earning Power (LEP) compensation, is based on a comparison of the pre-injury wage less the actual wages earned through return to work and pays 80% of the difference, up to a state-wide cap on compensation or the time loss compensation rate, whichever is less.

NJ Governor Christie to Propose Workers' Compensation Reform

The NJ Workers' Compensation system is in for a change. Governor Chris Christie of NJ is taking aim at reforming the NJ system.

In the past, unsuccessful major attempts to reform the State's workers' compensation

system have come from interest groups from outside of the State, ie. 1980's national insurance Industry (AIA) concerns. Now the focus is changing, and the proposals for reform will be coming from the the State's Chief Executive, a major coalition builder who has successfully tackled major legislative changes during his term in office.

Historical efforts on workers' compensation reform in NJ have been:

-1974 Following the NJ State Commission on Investigation "Report of the NJ Workmen's Compensation System"
-1980's Following the WCRI Study attempt to adopt AMA Medical Guidelines

-1998 An attempt to increase the calculation of the State Average Weekly Wage, Dependency      Benefits and Legislative Oversight

-2008 Following the NJ Star Ledger expose ("How NJ Fails Workers") on temporary and medical benefit issues

“'We’re going to be coming up with a package of proposals that’s going to work both sides of that,' Christie told a caller on his monthly NJ 101.5 FM radio show tonight.

'The employers who may not be stepping up and meeting their obligations and also the employees who are committing fraud on the worker’s comp system,' he said."

Click here to read the complete article:  Christie to present plan to reform N.J. worker's compensation system (NJ.com)

NASA: Safety Is Prime for Today's Launch of Antares

NASA is preparing for the launch of Orbital's Antares™ A-ONE Test Flight Mission scheduled for today at 5pm. I was a guest of NASA this week and toured the facility including the launch pad. Safety is prime for NASA and its corporate affiliates like Orbital.

Launching a space mission is a complex and massive operation. The balancing of public and mission safety concerns is extremely important. Besides the ordinary employee safety issues such as: hearing and eye protection, radio transmission frequency triggers and fire, NASA must identify and protect the public.

Unlike some other nations, the US launches its rockets near the ocean, and strictly monitors their trajectory. Any deviation from the planned flight path, ie. jeopardizing public safety, would result in the the destruction of the rocket over an isolated over-water area.

Today's planned launch will be televised on NASA TV and cane be viewed from a large area on the US Mid-Atlantic seacoast. 

Employer Fraud: Safety Manager Conceals Employee Injuries for Bonus

On Apr. 11, 2013, Walter Cardin, 55, of Metairie, La., was sentenced to serve 78 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release, by the Honorable Curtis L. Collier, U.S. District Judge. Cardin was convicted at trial in November 2012, after being charged by a federal grand jury with eight counts of major fraud against the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), an agency of the United States.

The indictment and subsequent conviction of Cardin was the result of a six-year

investigation conducted by the TVA-Office of Inspector General (TVA-OIG). The trial revealed that Cardin, as safety manager for the Shaw Group (formerly Stone & Webster Construction) at TVA’s Brown’s Ferry Nuclear site in Athens, Ala., provided false and misleading information about injuries at that facility as well as TVA’s Sequoyah Nuclear site in Soddy Daisy, Tenn., and TVA’s Watts Bar Nuclear site near Spring City, Tenn. 

The Shaw Group had a contract with TVA to provide maintenance and modifications to the three facilities and to provide construction for the Brown’s Ferry Unit Number 1 reactor restart. Cardin generated false injury rates which were used by the Shaw Group to collect safety bonuses of over $2.5 million from TVA. As part of a civil agreement filed with the United States in 2008, the Shaw Group paid back twice the amount of the ill-gotten safety bonuses.

US EPA Reports: Better Planning, Execution and Communication Could Have Reduced the Delays in Completing a Toxicity Assessment of the Libby, Montana, Superfund Site

The US EPA could have done better in handling the asbestos exposure site in Libby Montana according to a report issued yesterday by the US EPA's Inspector General. 

"U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) action officials did not complete  planned corrective actions under its Libby Action Plan in a timely manner. This occurred because the scope of the work was larger than originally thought; there was no established charter; and there were contracting delays, competing priorities, unanticipated work, and poor communication with stakeholders. Consequently, the Agency has twice revised its estimates for completing actions in response to our December 2006 report. 

"The toxicity assessment is one of two components (an exposure assessment 

being the other) that makes up the health risk assessment for determining 

cleanup levels in Libby. In December 2011, EPA informed us that the health 

risk assessment would be substantially delayed. As a result, the Agency’s final 

determinations that the completed and ongoing cleanup actions are sufficient to 

address the health risks from site contamination have been delayed from 2 to 6 

years, depending on the studies being performed. This is a significant concern, 

considering that the EPA Administrator declared a public-health emergency at 

the Libby site in 2009 and the Agency has spent over $400 million on cleanup. 

Communications about delays in completing Libby Action Plan items, and the 

reasons for those delays, were not always timely or clearly communicated to 

stakeholders; and EPA officials failed to update the Agency’s follow-up system 

or notify the Office of Inspector General (OIG) about known delays until 

planned corrective actions under the Libby Action Plan could not be met.

Click here to read the complete report: Better Planning, Execution and Communication Could Have Reduced the Delays in Completing a Toxicity Assessment of the Libby, Montana, Superfund Site

Occupational Illnesses Continue to Unnecessarily Kill Workers

A recent Letter to the Editor in the New York Times focuses on the fact that US workers continue to suffer from fatal occupational diseases and illness that are avoidable. 

Commenting on the feature article exposing the need to great enforcement of safety measures by OSHA, Tom O'Connor, Executive Director, National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, stated: "While nearly 5,000 workers die on the job each year, an estimated 50,000 more develop an occupational illness. Yet despite this toll, the federal government sits on rules that could help prevent workers from developing occupational illnesses. A proposed rule that would prevent workers from being exposed to dangerous levels of silica dust on the job has remained mired at the Office of Management and Budget for more than two years."

Click here to read the entire letter: LETTER Rules on Worker Health, Tom O'Connor Should Your Job Kill You?

Read more about "occupational illness" and workers' compensation:

Breast Cancer Presumed Occupational Illness - Workers ...

Mar 18, 2011

Fire fighters in Canada are supporting legislation that would establish a legal presumption that breast cancer is an occupationally related illness. The legislation also creates a presumption that 3 other cancers (skin, prostate ...

http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

Workers' Compensation: OSHA Needs To Be Strengthened

Mar 31, 2013

A just published study reports that only 25% of occupational disease claims are covered by US workers' compensation programs. Click here to read the entire report: Economic Burden of Occupational Injury and Illness in the .

http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

Alice in Wonderland - A Lesson in Occupational Illness - Workers ...

Mar 05, 2010

Alice in Wonderland has been released in the movie theaters today. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has been quick to remind us of the Mad Hatter and mercury exposures. "Society has made ...

http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

Workers' Compensation: US Lacks a Census of Occupational Illness ...

Mar 17, 2011

In a series of articles, Celeste Monforton discusses the absence in the U.S. of a comprehensive system for surveillance of occupational illnesses sand disease. Citing the the U.S. Surgeon General in 1965 that..."it is almost ...

http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

Related articles

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Where Have All The Lawyers Gone?

No where is it more evident than in workers' compensation law, that the lawyers and their practices to assist injured workers, are disappearing. Workers are finding it difficult to obtain legal representation.

Many factors are causing this phenomenon. The principle reasons why the practice of

workers compensation law are shrinking are legal, social and economic.

Those factors include: a shrinking employment base, the loss of a manufacturing sector, and continued Industry "reform" efforts to bar injured workers from accessing the compensation system.

Additionally, as the practice of workplace law keeps drying up, disillusioned new lawyers are abandoning the practice of law at ever increasing numbers. Established law firms are consolidating and closing as second generation lawyers seek other types of work far from the practice of workplace law.

David B. Wilkins, who directs a program on the legal profession at Harvard Law School, said, "'In the 1970s, lawyers spent about half their time serving individuals and half on corporations. By the 1990s, it was two-thirds for corporations. So there has been a skewing toward urban business practice and neglect of many other legal needs.'”

Read the complete article: "No Lawyer for Miles, So One Rural State Offers Pay" 

Read more about "lawyers" and "workers' compensation"

Law Schools Should Establish Workers' Compensation Law Firms
Mar 08, 2013
Today the NY Times reports that law schools through the nation are opening law firms for recent graduates creating new post graduate job opportunities for debt ridden students and for additional training. The field of workers' ...
http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

Workers' Compensation: The Law School's Roll in Workers ...
Jan 12, 2012
They will review how many law schools are featuring a workers' compensation course, how the panelists teach the subject, and they will also provide advice on how to lobby a law school to initiate such a course. The College ...
http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

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