Quote of the day
"They're focused on industrial accidents. We just feel it's time."
Barbara Dupont, the mother of murdered Ontario nurse Lori Dupont, who is lobbying for changes to the province's regulations on workplace safety that would address workplace violence and harassment
WCRI: Volunteer State Reforms Working
Workers’ compensation reforms enacted in Tennessee in 2004 appear to be working according to a study by the nonprofit Workers Compensation Research Institute. Since 2004, Tennessee’s median permanent partial disability/lump-sum payment per claim decreased 19 percent compared to a 9 percent in the period immediately before the legislative changes, the study found. Nashville Business Journal
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Pregnancy Bias Suit Nets $972K for Corrections Officers
Twenty-three female correctional officers who were on workers’ compensation for injuries when they became pregnant, prompting the state of New York to transfer them to unpaid maternity leave, win $972,000 in a discrimination suit. The Justice Department sued the Department of Correctional Services on behalf of the women, saying they were unfairly forced to take unpaid leave with fewer benefits than they would receive on workers’ comp. By Thomas Zambito, New York Daily News
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North Dakota: WSI Prepares New Rate Schedule
Workforce Safety and Insurance, North Dakota’s workers’ compensation agency, is preparing a new rate schedule for employers that its chief of employer services says should raise the agency’s premium revenues by 2.5 percent during the next budget year. The rate plan takes effect July 1 and has a 15-percent limit on how much rates may rise or fall for individual jobs.
Go to the full story in KFYR-TV (Bismarck)
Go to the full story by AP via KXNet.com (Minot)
Slain Nurse’s Mother Wants Act Amended
The mother of a nurse who was stabbed to death in the hospital by her ex-boyfriend, a doctor, in a notorious 2005 incident, lobbies for changes to Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act that would address workplace violence and harassment. Windsor Star
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Founder Discusses Expansion of Her Workers’ Comp Niche Business
Carolyn LaHousse, who has been honored as a 2008 Michigan Women’s Business Council outstanding achiever, discusses the growth of her company, a full-service provider of health care cost-containment services that was created as a niche service for workers’ compensation medical review, talks about how she grows her business and deals with the biggest challenges in the market. By Mike Scott, Oakland Business Review via MLive.com [with photo] Go to the Full Story…
ILO to Help Reforms in Fiji
In Fiji, International Labour Organization experts are expected to assist in the reform of the Wages Council, implement a new workers’ compensation scheme and help set minimum wage standards. A government labor official says that a survey has found that the current workers’ comp scheme is leading to increased poverty and that, under a new scheme, there will be a “no fault” policy on workers. Fiji Village [with photo] Go to the Full Story…
Worker Waits for Alberta WCB to Restart Benefits
Despite a favorable appeals board finding in March, an Alberta construction worker who says he suffered a career-ending fall, and then another one caused by loss of equilibrium from the initial fall, is still waiting for the Alberta Workers’ Compensation Board to restart his benefits. By Michael Rigler, Western Star (Newfoundland and Labrador)
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