New strategies for compensation claims
- Employers have options for easing injured employees back to work and there are remote options that proved to be successful during lockdowns for injured employees transitioning back to work.
- An office employee whose only restriction is driving might be allowed to temporarily work from home.
- An employee who must rest their hands every hour to prevent a carpal tunnel flare-up might be given more schedule flexibility with remote work.
- Integrating robotics into workflow may help prevent injuries caused by heavy work in the first place.
Ohio contractor faces $1M in fines
- A Millersburg, Ohio, contractor with a long history of disregarding workplace safety standards faces more than $1 million in penalties after an OSHA inspection found their employees working at dangerous heights without fall protection.
- The infractions occurred at Charm Builders Ltd.’s West Virginia work site.
- OSHA found Charm Builders allowing employees, some at heights up to 28 feet, to work without required protection, and exposing them to the construction industry’s most deadly hazard.
- OSHA issued citations for 12 violations for failing to ensure the use of fall protection, not training employees on fall hazards, allowing unsafe use of portable ladders, and not making sure workers used safety glasses.
Women selling workers comp should seek female doctors
- Financial advisors with female clients that need to file for workers’ comp have the best chance of getting benefits if they use a woman doctor for the evaluation, according to a new study.
- Women who were injured on the job and evaluated by female doctors were 5% more likely to be certified as having an injury that qualified them for benefits than if the doctors were men, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.
- The study examined more than 70,000 workers’ compensation claims.
- Women receive 8.5% more in benefits if they use a female doctor, according to the report.
Gannett tries to find a legal loophole with workers comp law
- Gannett Corp. allegedly is not hanging over documents needed to help former Democrat and Chronicle newspaper carriers prove they were molested by an adult route supervisor in the 1980s.
- The media chain claims that New York’s workers’ compensation system, and not the Child Victims Act, is the former carriers’ only legal recourse.
- The carriers claim they were sexually abused as teenagers by Jack Lazeroff, a D&C route supervisor that died in 2003 at 74.
- Gannett has denied responsibility for any abuse its former newspaper carriers might have suffered.