Monday, April 30, 2012

Workers Compensation Destruction Bill out of conference; still awful

I figured we were headed down a bad road when the conferees were named on the Workers Compensation Destruction Bill, and I was right. The bill still forces the family of a worker killed on the job to prove causation without the testimony of their deceased loved one. (I call this the "dead men tell no tales" provision.) The bill still creates an unfair apportionment scheme for injured workers with regard to preexisting conditions, takes away the right of an injured worker to choose his own physician in many cases, and creates a presumption that a worker on any prescribed medication was drunk at the time of injury.

Further the bill still does nothing to address the problems outlined in the lengthy PEER report that blasted our current Workers Compensation scheme. In fact, this bill is likely to make those problems worse, not better.

As an aside for those of you out there with Haley Barbour bumper stickers on the Silverado the bank still owns - The Workers Compensation Destruction Bill is the perfect example of what Republicans do when given power: they grind middle-class and working-class folks into grist for the rich. It's fine for the guy who owns the plant where you work and the folks who own the bank your wife is a loan officer for to vote Republican. Heck, it's in their economic best interest. But you ought to look in the mirror and ask yourself if the folks you've been voting for are ever going to look out for you. The Workers Compensation Destruction Bill is your answer.

I'll try to post more on this later this morning, but I can already tell you work's going to get in the way.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Note that, if you "refuse" to IMMEDIATELY submit yourself to drug testing after the accident, you are presumed drunk or high, and that is presumed the cause of your accident. All the E/C have to do is allege you refused. I have seen this abused many times, for instance, "We called your cell phone while you were laying in bed semi-conscious after your ER visit where the drugged you up with morphine and left a message for you to immediately returnn to work for a drug test and you DIDN'T" SO, now it is presumed you refused the test and it is presumed drugs or alcohol caused your accident.

Unknown said...

For the life of me, I cannot understand why middle class working people continue to vote against their interests by voting Republican and end up with legislation like this! The current crop of Republican legislators won't be happy until all us working people are back on the plantation! By the way, I enjoy your blog. I read it every day.