News Digest 12/5/2007

By: Rick Waldinger

Quote of the day

"I think it's always been there. But I think the fact that people are reporting it more would suggest it's on the rise."

Terri Howard, vice president of corporate preparedness for the Crisis Prevention Institute, Brookfield, Wisc., about workplace bullying

Go to the full story in the Appleton Post-Crescent

Jury Convicts Former Folsom Guard of Faking Injuries
A former Folsom State Prison guard is convicted of 14 counts of fraud after a Sacramento County jury finds that she faked injuries connected to her fall from a guard tower in order to qualify for workers’ compensation and a CalPERS pension. Surveillance tapes reportedly caught her using water slides and personal watercraft, activities that were inconsistent with her claimed injuries. By John Hill, Sacramento Bee
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O.C. Man Gets Six Years for Threatening Workers’ Comp Judges
A 52-year-old Orange County man receives a sentence of more than six years in state prison for threatening two workers’ compensation judges who handed down unfavorable rulings in his back injury case. Los Angeles Times
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Court’s Rejection of WCAB Ruling Stokes Discrimination Concerns
An osteoporosis-stricken state worker who broke her back in 2003 may get a more disability benefits under a court ruling that raises questions about whether California’s workers’ comp reforms discriminate on the basis of age. A state appeals court rejected a WCAB decision that reduced the 76-year-old claimant’s workers’ comp benefit by 40 percent, in part by claiming her loss of bone density made her more susceptible to injury. By AP via San Jose Mercury News
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Empire State Task Force Targets Costliest Injuries
A New York State Insurance Department task force proposes a set of guidelines that focus on the treatment of lower back, cervical spine, knee and shoulder injuries. The Workers’ Compensation Research Institute recently reported that such injuries account for nearly 60 percent of total medical costs in New York. Business First of Buffalo
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Australia’s RailCorp Faces Huge Workers’ Comp Rate Spike
RailCorp, New South Wales’ rail operator, has failed two of its three major workplace safety checks since 2005, and now is in danger of having to more than $26 million USD extra annually in workers’ compensation insurance. By Imre Salusinszky, Australian
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Workplace Bullying Also Attacks Productivity
A NIOSH study finds that in 2004 in the U.S., an average of 33,000 employees a week were subject to some form of abuse in the workplace. Experts say bullying exacts an undeniable cost on productivity. By Pete Bach, Appleton Post-Crescent
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Horizontal Immunity Law Hangs Florida Worker—Again
A Florida worker who was suspended by a safety harness 35 feet off the ground at a Jacksonville construction site as a result of another worker’s negligence likely will have to pay the company responsible for his multiple injuries thousands of dollars in court costs after turning down its $200,000 settlement offer. Florida’s 2003 “horizontal immunity” law—just four days old at the time of the incident—is the reason. By Paul Pinkham, Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville) [With Photos] Go to the Full Story…