New executive order provides more access to childcare programs

• A plan to revamp federal employees’ access to child care is part of a broader effort by President Biden to improve the affordability of care services for children and adult family members, as well as boost workers’ compensation.
• The executive order seeks to tackle a lack of affordable child and adult care services while boosting compensation for workers in the industry.
• The administration said the order requires the federal government to take “over 50 actions” to bolster access to child care, home health care, and other long-term care for older adults
• The Office of Personnel Management will review the agencies’ policies for childcare subsidies to employees and consider setting new standards.
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Michigan considering more support for volunteer firefighters

• A Senate hearing in Michigan will discuss workers’ compensation for paid-on-call, volunteer and part-time firefighters and law enforcement officers.
• A group of firefighters is working so that no one on the front has to experience the financial burden that one West Michigan family went through after losing a loved one.
• Buitendorp, like the now-20-other Grant Township firefighters, was a paid-on-call worker.
• They go through the same training, the same intense rescues, and the same stress as other firefighters, but they are only considered part-time.
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New York woman pleads guilty to workers’ comp fraud

• A Watervliet, New York, woman has pled guilty to defrauding the United States Department of Labor, Office of Workers’ Compensation Program.
• Eunice Ting, 69, pled guilty to making a false statement.
• She submitted hundreds of materially false and fraudulent forms to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Worker’s Compensation Program.
• She claimed workers’ compensation for aquatic therapy at a local YMCA that she never received.
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Denial of worker’ comp claim in Missouri

• A plaintiff in Missouri appealed the denial of her claim for workers’ compensation benefits.
• The commission concluded that the plaintiff’s work activity was not the prevailing factor in causing her injury.
• On appeal, the plaintiff argued that there was not sufficient competent evidence to support the commission’s determination.
• The commission’s decision to credit the expert’s opinion regarding the plaintiff’s work activities and reject the plaintiff’s expert’s opinion provided a sufficient basis for its decision to deny workers’ compensation benefits.
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