Quote of the day
"What's infuriating about these constant attempts to inflate public-employee salaries and benefits is the unions do it because they can, because they have access and because Democratic lawmakers count on them at re-election time. These lawmakers should have the courage to back up their union-coddling with funding for the mandates they impose, thereby taking on themselves the political risk of state tax increases such gifts inevitably would require."
Editorial, Waterbury (Conn.) Republican-American
WCRI: Medical Payments Drive Costs in Old Line State
Workers’ compensation costs per claim in Maryland grew rapidly in four out of five study years, according to a new study by Cambridge, Mass.-based Workers Compensation Research Institute. The major driver was rapid growth in average medical payments per claim. Centre Daily Times (State College, Pa.)
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Illinoisan Claims Restaurant Lacked Workers’ Comp Coverage
A southern Illinois woman who suffered a back injury in a slip-and-fall accident while working at a Collinsville, Ill., restaurant, sues her employer for allegedly failing to provide workers’ compensation coverage. Damages sought exceed $50,000. By Steve Gonzalez, St. Clair Record
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Editorial: ‘The Politics of Workers’ Comp’ in Constitution State
It has been widely believed that police and emergency workers were more susceptible to heart and hypertension diseases than civilians and, as a result, were entitled to enhanced workers’ compensation. But recent research debunks that myth, and public-safety workers should get the same benefits as anyone else who is unable to work after suffering from these conditions. Waterbury (Conn.) Republican-American
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BrickStreet Earned $185M Profit in 2007
West Virginia’s exclusive, private workers’ comp carrier BrickStreet Mutual Insurance Co. in 2007 earned a profit of $185 million, giving policyholders a chance to receive a portion of the profits. And over the two years it has been in business, BrickStreet has avoided paying $194 million in taxes under its three-year state tax exemption.
Go to the full story by Bethany A. Romanek, Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register
Go to the full story by AP via Charleston Gazette
Go to the full story by Joe Morris, Charleston Sunday Gazette-Mail
Go to the editorial in the Charleston Daily Mail
U.K.: Limitations Threatens Asbestos Victims’ Compensation
In Britain, mesothelioma patients who had been hoping for asbestos-related compensation fear they will run out of time under new government rules on payouts. Compensation is already available for those with work-related exposures, but ministers last year announced that they would extend compensation to people who had been exposed to the fibers at home or elsewhere in their environment. By Jo Revill, Guardian (U.K.)
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