Companies must provide workers’ compensation data under settlement

• Tyson and JBS have agreed to pay a combined $127.2 million to resolve a lawsuit accusing them of suppressing workers’ pay at processing plants, marking the largest deals so far in the wage-fixing case in Colorado federal court.
• The workers’ attorneys asked a judge to open a new tab to preliminarily approve the deals that would boost the settlements to $138.5 million.
• The remaining defendants in the case include Cargill, Hormel, National Beef, and Smithfield. Tyson and JBS are required through their settlements to provide workers’ compensation data, documents, and testimony as the plaintiffs pursue pending claims.
• Perdue earlier agreed to pay a $1.25 million settlement, and Seaboard Foods and Triumph Foods said they would pay $10 million to exit the litigation.
  Read more

NCCI Releases Employment Data

• The National Council on Compensation Insurance released the latest edition of its Labor Market Insights report, which provides a monthly overview of key labor market statistics and potential impact on workers’ compensation.
• NCCI noted that as the changing workforce and economic conditions to be top of mind for workers’ compensation executives, this valuable resource delivers timely perspectives on what the latest jobs reports mean for the industry.
• Employment growth in February came in stronger than expected. The US economy added 275,000 jobs overall, with 223,000 jobs added in private employment; however, the details of the jobs report were mixed.
• Strong wage growth and strong employment growth in February helped boost payroll growth over the past 12 months back above 5%.
  Read more

Ohio Supreme Court makes overrules precedent

• The Ohio Supreme Court rendered a decision in a case called Dillon v Industrial Commission that overruled a 25-year precedent from its prior authority.
• Before this case, employers could not argue that a claimant’s ongoing temporary total disability (TTD) compensation could be terminated due to maximum medical improvement (MMI) for a date before the Industrial Commission Hearing.
• Now, after Dillon, employers are permitted to request termination of a claimant’s ongoing TTD compensation from the date of the independent medical examination report finding MMI.
• This is true even if the date of the independent medical examination report precedes the date of the Industrial Commission Hearing on this issue.
  Read more

Missouri court to rule on workers’ comp case

• The Missouri Supreme Court will decide if, and how, a company hit with a $900,000 default judgment can challenge it on appeal.
• Johnson Controls Inc. learned in May 2022 that David Steele had filed a lawsuit in Gentry County Circuit Court alleging he faced retaliatory discharge for having filed a workers’ compensation claim. The suit was served on Johnson Controls’ registered agent, CT Corporation.
• An in-house attorney in the litigation department mistakenly thought the matter was itself a workers’ compensation claim and that a different department was handling it.
• Johnson Controls didn’t answer the suit, and after Steele moved for default, Judge Corey Herron entered a judgment of $300,000 in compensatory damages and $600,000 in punitive damages.
  Read more