Public Employee Press

Fightback against Workers' comp "reform"

By MIKE LEE

In his state budget proposal, Gov. Andrew Cuomo seeks to overturn a century-old agreement on workers' compensation.

If passed, Cuomo's proposed changes to workers' compensation will have a far-reaching harmful impact on public and private-sector workers.

The proposal is backed by the Business Council of New York State, which contends reforms are needed to help control the costs of workers' compensation cases.

Rather than being proposed in legislation, the workers' compensation changes are hidden in Article VII of the governor's preliminary 2016 budget.

Gov. Cuomo proposes dramatic revisions to the Workers' Compensation Law that include:
• eliminating certain rights of workers in the appeals process,
• reducing the opportunity for injured workers to have the same judge hear their case throughout the entire claims process, and
• eliminating the mandatory deposits into the Aggregate Trust Fund,

which would significantly reduce the payments due to fully disabled workers and to beneficiaries in cases where the worker has died.

The proposal also would extend the time a claimant has to wait before seeking care outside of a preferred provider network.

It gives the Workers' Compensation Board the power to reassign a case to a new judge at any time during the process.

Robert Grey, managing partner of Grey & Grey and the chair of the New York Workers' Compensation Alliance, a pro-labor advocacy group, described the changes sought in the proposal as the most regressive in two decades.

An analysis of the budget by the alliance says the proposed changes would reduce due process rights of injured workers, who depend totally on workers' compensation when they are out of work.

The charges are designed to throw additional roadblocks in the system, making the already time-consuming and grueling process even more difficult, according to the report.

"These proposed changes will make the injured worker irrelevant to the process," said DC 37 Safety and Health Director Guille Mejia. "This reverses workers' compensation law in favor of the business community."

Devastating impact on workers

What's particularly egregious is the proposal calls for changing the method of calculating the average weekly wage of an injured worker.

The new method would reduce the amount of compensation due to injured workers, especially of hourly workers, who generally are among the lowest paid workers in New York.

The impact on injured workers and their families would be devastating.

Under the new system, an injured worker would only receive two-thirds of his or her on-the-job pay.

The lower compensation would push many vulnerable families further into poverty.

If implemented, the new system will reduce the period of time an injured worker will receive benefits.

These proposals are part of a dismantling of a "grand bargain" between business and labor groups regarding compensation that has been in place since the early 20th century.
Over the past decade, business groups and their right-wing political allies have carried out a nationwide assault on workers' compensation benefi ts aimed at breaking long standing agreements.

Besides eliminating established procedures, the effort seeks to deny injured workers their due process rights and reduce their compensation as they recover from work-related injuries.

Local 1549's Lee Clarke, chair of the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH), attacked the proposals. "If employers want to cut back on workers' compensation costs or the cost of insurance, they should focus on creating safer workplaces so people don't get injured or killed in the first place," Clarke said.

A coalition of labor groups and workers advocates have organized the Workers Protection and Compensation Coalition to fight these changes and to work together on other issues involving workers' compensation regulation.

DC 37 has joined the coalition to fight this attempt to gut workers' compensation.

At a panel discussion on worker's compensation - co-sponsored by state Sen. James Sanders Jr. and Assembly member Francisco Moya - during the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus in Albany in February, participants discussed the fight-back campaign.