$190K workers’ comp settlement to Minneapolis policeman involved in beating incident
The Minneapolis City Council voted last week to approve a $190,000 workers’ compensation payment to a Minneapolis policeman who was involved in an alleged police brutality incident, which is now under investigation by state and federal authorities. The officer was on a SWAT team that drove around in an unmarked van firing rubber bullets at people without warning five days after the murder of George Floyd in 2020. Minnesota Reformer
Family suing West Virginia mulch company in employee’s fatal machine accident
The estate of a 27-year-old heavy equipment and mulch coloring machine operator, who became trapped inside the machine while working in March 2021 and died of severe crushing injuries, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against his employer. Preston County News & Journal
House panel advances bills improving feds’ access to workers’ comp
The House Education and Health Committee has advanced two bills aimed at making it easier for federal employees to receive workers’ compensation benefits for conditions developed on the job. The first would establish a presumption federal wildland firemen with at least five years of service who develop any one of a number of serious health conditions, including lung diseases and lung, brain and digestive system cancers, did so due to on-the-job exposure to smoke and other hazardous materials. The second bill would expand who can diagnose, certify and ultimately treat workplace injuries and illnesses to include nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants. Government Executive
Contractor involved in two deaths at Boston worksite last year cited again
A contractor involved in the February 2021 double fatality at a downtown Boston worksite has again been cited for failing to provide employees with essential and required safeguards, this time at a residential construction site in East Boston. The contractor faces $625,000 in proposed Fed-OSHA penalties for the latest violation. The company is now on the agency’s repeat offender watchlist. East Boston Times-Free Press