Illinois Appellate Court: No Show No Case

• A court rules that because an injured worker never showed up, the case was properly dismissed. Injured worker Eugenia Bala filed a workers’ comp claim for injuries sustained while working for a home health care company in 2015.
• The company filed a motion to dismiss in a proceeding before an arbitrator. Bala did not show up for hearing causing the arbitrator to dismiss.
• The arbitrator granted Bala’s request for reinstatement. After much back and forth, Bala said she had never received a notification regarding the trial. The arbitrator eventually dismissed the case.
• The court ruled in favor of the arbitrator’s actions. For one thing the workers’s case had been dismissed twice before, and Bala never showed up for the set trial date.
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Carpenters Rally to Fight Fraud

• Indiana carpenters are calling attention to the practice of construction workers classifying workers as independent contractors to avoid paying taxes among other things.
• Classifying workers as independent contractors allows some employers to avoid paying workers compensation and other benefits.
• According to a study by the University of California at Berkley, some 1.1. to 2.1 million construction workers are paid off the books.
• The rate of tax fraud and workers’ compensation fraud are off the charts, according to organizations that keep track.
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Business Association Says Bills Go too Far

• Two Minnesota bills targeting the use of independent contractors are going to make it harder to do business in the state, a prominent business association opines.
• Despite the intention of the two bills to deal with fraudulent practices, their language and enforcement would make it almost impossible to hire independent contractors.
• Many small businesses rely on independent contractor to keep their operations moving.
• Businesses say fraud is a problem, which includes misclassifying employees as independent contractors to cheat on workers’ comp premium. But the bills’ language is impossible to understand, and small business owners could be punished for honest mistakes.
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