Minnesota bill to extend pandemic workers’ comp passes committee unanimously
Legislation intended to extend pandemic workers’ compensation benefits for public safety and healthcare employees sickened or quarantined due to exposure to COVID-19 has advanced through the Minnesota House Labor, Industry, Veterans and Military Affairs Finance and Policy Committee with unanimous support. Current legislation would expire May 1, 2021. This extension would put the expiration date at May 1, 2022. KNSI (St. Cloud, Minn.)
Connecticut lawmakers propose sweeping changes to workers’ comp system
Two Connecticut legislators have raised two bills that would establish the assumption that if someone could not work from home for up to two weeks before they caught COVID-19, they contracted it while on the job. The proposed bills would establish an assumption retroactive to March 10, 2020, when the governor first declared a public health emergency, and would increase the maximum death benefit in the workers’ compensation system from $4,000 to $20,000. Ct Mirror
Stanford doctor: COVID lockdowns are ‘biggest public health mistake we’ve ever made’
COVID-19 lockdowns constitute the “biggest public health mistake we’ve ever made,” according to Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University Medical School professor. He says he bases this conclusion on two basic facts: the risk and danger of the virus is far greater for older people than it is for all others; and that, “Lockdowns themselves are harmful” because they “are not a natural, normal way to live.” CNS News
New York labor department investigating fireman’s medical emergency
The New York Department of Labor’s Public Employee Safety and Health Bureau, or PESH, is looking into what happened at the New York State Academy of Fire Science, where a fireman last week had a medical emergency while training with a breathing apparatus. WWNY (Watertown, N.Y.)
Employees of Michigan food processing plant claim exposures to harmful chemicals
Employees of an asparagus processing facility in Oceana County, Michigan claim that, in 2019, there was a persistent, chemical smell that caused eyes to water, throats to itch and heads to ache. One employee alleges the smell from the chemicals became so overpowering, she passed out in a bathroom and had to be rushed to the hospital by ambulance. Now, they’ve filed a federal lawsuit seeking damages from the owner. Michigan Radio