Hank Patterson Receives the 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award

This week, Henry “Hank” N. Patterson, Jr. was presented with the 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual dinner of the Workplace Injury and Advocacy Group (WILG),  in Palm Beach, Florida. For his entire career, Hank has zealously advanced the rights of workers. He has held leadership positions in national legal organizations, including the American Bar Association, and helped establish the College of Workers Compensation Lawyers.

Hank graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1963 and from UNC Law School in 1966, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif. Before entering private practice, he served as law clerk to the Honorable J. Braxton Craven, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and worked as an attorney in Region 11 of the National Labor Relations Board.

He has served on legislative study commissions and as Chair of the Workers’ Rights Section of the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers, Co-Chair of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Workers’ Compensation Committee, and member of the Advisory Council to the Chair of the North Carolina Industrial Commission. Hank is a Board Certified Specialist in Workers’ Compensation Law. His practice is limited to the areas of workers’ compensation, labor and employment, and disability entitlements.

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National Survey: Working Longer—Older Americans’ Attitudes on Work and Retirement

The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research has released the results of a major new survey exploring the views of older Americans about their plans for work and retirement.  It provides in-depth information about a rapidly growing segment of the population that by choice or circumstance is working longer.  The Great Recession has had a marked impact on retirement plans. “The survey illuminates an important shift in Americans’ attitudes toward work, aging, and retirement,” said Trevor Tompson, director of the AP-NORC Center.  “Retirement is not only coming later in life, it no longer represents a complete exit from the workforce.  The data in this survey reveal strikingly different views of retirement among older workers today than those held by the prior generation.” With funding provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research conducted a national survey of 1,024 adults ages 50 and over.  It is a segment of the population that is not only growing rapidly in numbers, but is also becoming substantially healthier.  Projections show that the U.S. population age 65 and over will increase to 19 percent of the population by 2030, up from 13 percent in 2010, an estimated 72 million people. At the same time, people age 55 and over comprise the fastest growing segment of the workforce. By 2020, approximately one fourth of American workers will be...

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In Washington State, Home of Highest Minimum Wage, a City Aims Higher

Wages have a direct effect on workers' compensation benefits as they usually determine the rate of the benefit paid for temporary and permanent disability. Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.nytimes.com

Washington already has the highest state minimum wage in the country, at $9.19 an hour. Soon, voters in this tiny city south of Seattle will decide whether to push the local minimum even higher. If a majority of the voters here say yes to a referendum known as Proposition 1 when their mail-in ballots start arriving this week, a minimum wage of $15 an hour would be required for many businesses in SeaTac, more than twice the federal minimum of $7.25. The measure would lift wages for thousands of workers at one of the nation’s busiest airports, Seattle-Tacoma International, which is within city limits. But business and labor leaders say the economic and political implications, with local democracy going where state and federal legislators mostly fear to tread, could be equally profound.

Foxconn admits labour violation at China factory

Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from www.bbc.co.uk

Foxconn, the world's biggest contract electronics maker, has admitted student interns worked shifts at a factory in China that were in violation of its company policies. Foxconn The firm, which makes products for some the world's biggest brands, has been under scrutiny for labour practices. It had admitted to hiring underage interns at the same unit last year. Foxconn said actions had been taken to bring the factory "into full compliance with our code and policies". "There have been a few instances where our policies pertaining to overtime and night shift work were not enforced," the company said in a statement. The manufacturing giant is owned by Taiwanese group Hon Hai Precision and employs about 800,000 workers around the globe. Foxconn, while not a household name in itself for many consumers, is used by most of the big technology giants around the world, including Apple, Sony, Microsoft, HP, and Nokia. It first came under scrutiny for its labour practices when 13 employees committed suicide at its Chinese plants in 2010. The incidents raised concerns over working conditions at its units in China and drew attention to growing labour strikes. For its part, Foxconn responded by raising wages, shortening working hours and employing counsellors on site. It also installed suicide nets to factory living-quarters at its Shenzhen factory. Also in 2010, Foxconn temporarily shut down a unit in India after 250 workers fell sick. And in May 2011, two people were killed after...

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U.S. asbestos imports condemned by health experts, activists

Today's post was shared by Linda Reinstein and comes from www.publicintegrity.org

More than 50 countries have banned asbestos, a toxic mineral used in building materials, insulation, automobile brakes and other products. The United States isn’t one of them. Last year, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, 1,060 metric tons — more than 2.3 million pounds — came into the country, all of it from Brazil. “Based on current trends,” the USGS says, “U.S. asbestos consumption is likely to remain near the 1,000-ton level …” Public health experts and anti-asbestos activists find this distressing. Linda Reinstein, who lost her husband to mesothelioma, an especially virulent form of cancer tied to asbestos exposure, said she’s “appalled and disgusted that the United States still allows the importation of asbestos to meet so-called manufacturing needs.

When your symptoms don't tell the whole story

Today's post was shared by RWJF PublicHealth and comes from www.marketplace.org

Instead of asking you to talk about the pain in your foot, or the ache in your chest, health care workers are starting to ask you about...your story. There’s an emerging idea in health care that social and psychological conditions -- like poverty and chronic stress -- change how your body and brain work, and that can have damaging long-term effects on your health. Doctors and nurses from northern California to Camden, N.J., are beginning to see that the first step in treating these patients is often treating the part of the illness that’s not on the surface. Patients like 30-year-old Elizabeth Philkill.

Asbestos Can Take Your Breath Away, Forever

Today's post was shared by Linda Reinstein and comes from blog.saferchemicals.org

The time is now for the Senate to unanimously support the passage of the Safe Chemicals Act (S.847). We need to do more to protect our children from BPAs, fire retardants and other dangerous toxins in our world. What many don’t realize is that asbestos is still legal and lethal in theUnited States, tragically impacting families. I know because it happened to us. I remember the day when my husband AlanAlan Was diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma as if it were yesterday.  We had never heard of mesothelioma, and we were devastated when we learned that there is no cure.  Our daughter was only ten years old when we began our arduous family battle to fight mesothelioma and work with Congress To ban asbestos.