Employees at State Compensation Insurance Fund are agreeing to a 5% pay cut and 12 personal days of leave as part of the contract deal the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has reached with the Schwarzenegger administration. Dubbed a personal leave program (PLP), the one-time, 12-month initiative carries a promise that no additional furlough days …
By signing some workers’ comp bills and vetoing others, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is staying true to his promise to protect his legacy of workers’ comp reforms. But at the same time, he seems to have lost sight of the taxpayers by signing a costly cancer presumption bill that will cost taxpayers a bundle. Predictably, the …
Dear Editor: In regards the article [State Fund Continues to Suffer a Soft Market] I think it [the article] is an artful attempt to hurt SCIF. What you do so skillfully is to mix facts, i.e., the quotes from Jay [Stewart], with your own conjectures and subjective comparisons. Examples are your heading “Financial Trouble Ahead” and …
They hope they won’t have to wait long, but brokers and those organizations representing brokers and the interests of their clients will keep pushing State Compensation Insurance Fund to compete fairly and provide a level playing field to its California employers and businesses. Compline, the Alliance of Insurance Agents and Brokers and other associations have …
The Commission on Health and Safety and Workers’ Compensation (CHSWC) says it wants to examine the “pros and cons and feasibility of establishing a class action process” at the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB). The issue has been simmering at the board for years. But a recent case involving recovery of interest on late attorney …
A Northern California contractor agreed to pay $3.9 million to settle charges from the Attorney General’s office that it shortchanged its employees and cheated its workers’ comp carrier out of its due. The case against Country Builders in Livermore stemmed from a 2008 complaint filed by employees who noted that their pay stubs showed a …
Insurance commissioner candidate and current Assemblyman Dave Jones (D-Sacramento) has drawn a line in the sand about his bill, AB 2490, which originally required that policy disputes between workers’ comp insurance carriers and employers be arbitrated in California using California law. It’s not unusual for employers to be blindsided by agreements requiring that disputes be …
After an exhaustive search, State Compensation Insurance Fund has chosen a new president to take the reins at the carrier. Tom Rowe of the consulting firm T. Rowe Strategies, a property/casualty insurance consulting firm, will take over August 2. He replaces interim president and Chief Risk Officer Doug Stewart, who has been in charge since …