Oklahoma Mulls Excluding Unpaid Workers

The Oklahoma State Senate will consider a bill that would exclude interns and other unpaid workers from workers compensation eligibility.
Expected to be introduced on Feb. 3, S.B. 95 would amend the state’s workers comp law that specifies those who aren’t considered employees to include “any person engaging in a temporary work arrangement that allows the individual to observe a work environment and gain work experience without the expectation of financial compensation.”
The bill also clarifies or redefines dozens of terms and descriptions of jobs and responsibilities under the state’s Administrative Workers’ Compensation Act.
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A Massachusetts Reviewing Board last week ruled that where an employee’s claim was dismissed without prejudice, the dismissal should have been with prejudice given the judge’s finding that the employee behaved in an unreasonable manner.
They said that an earlier decision to dismiss the employee’s claim without prejudice overlooked the insurer’s rights established by its appeal of the conference order.
The three-judge panel for the state’s Department of Industrial Accidents reviewed the case of employee Robert A. Blundell, III against his employer, YRC Freight and the WC insurance carrier, Old Republic Insurance Co.
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Joel Sacks has been reappointed as director of the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I), according to an announcement from the governor’s office.
L&I oversees Washington state workplace safety requirements, workers’ compensation insurance, wage and hour laws, and other key programs.
Sacks has served as L&I director since 2013.
Before becoming L&I director, Sacks served eight years at the state Employment Security Department as deputy commissioner and as assistant commissioner for the Budget, Policy, and Communication Division. He spent four years at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the U.S. Department of Labor.
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Employers Preferred Insurance Company and its pooled affiliates have been upgraded by AM Best.
The rating agency upgraded the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) to A (Excellent) from A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings (Long-Term ICR) to “a” (Excellent) from “a-” (Excellent)
All companies are headquartered in Reno, NV.
Employers operates primarily as a monoline workers’ compensation insurer focusing on small businesses engaged in low-to-medium hazard industries, with a relatively high concentration of premium volume in a select number of states.
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The author of a new study that found occupational exposure to quartz dust is associated with the development of the lung disease silicosis is calling for great consumer and physician awareness of the risk.
“Now that engineered stone has become the most popular countertop material in the United States, it is important to raise awareness among consumers that the risk of silicosis is even greater to workers exposed to dust from engineered stone products,” said Richard Anthony Lee, MD,a pulmonologist at UCI Health and an associate clinical professor in the Division of Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine at the UCI School of Medicine.
He called on doctors treating patients who have developed silica from workplace exposure, to report those cases to state or federal occupational safety and health programs and notifying local health departments.
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