Murphy amends Workers’ Comp Act in New Jersey

• New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill that amends the New Jersey Workers’ Compensation Act to increase the maximum allowable evaluating physician fee from $600 to $1,000.
• Judges in the New Jersey workers’ compensation courts have routinely ordered the maximum $600 fee paid to a petitioner’s evaluating treatment physician or permanency expert.
• Typically, the judge splits the cost evenly between the petitioner and the respondent/carrier/employer, each paying $300.
• While judges have routinely granted the maximum $600 allowed, the statute does leave the medical expert fee within the discretion of the judge.
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New workers’ comp laws in Florida

• New workers’ compensation rules took effect in Florida, which impact penalties for employers who fail to obtain insurance and set new requirements for exemptions for corporate officers.
• The rule revisions that had been in the works for months, some of which were needed to comply with new state laws, have been adopted.
• New requirements for the conditional release of a stop-work order after the employer has secured insurance and has paid penalties or is making monthly installments.
• A 15% penalty reduction if employers take an online course at one of the division’s district offices; and penalties for employers who were cited but have come into compliance before stop-work order is issued.
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Injured during a religious ritual at work denied workers’ comp

• The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal upheld a finding that a worker who fell in a washroom at work while performing a religious cleansing is not entitled to workers’ compe benefits for his injury.
• The tribunal found, and the court agreed, that the worker essentially stepped out of the course of employment when he went to the washroom to perform the cleansing ritual
• The tribunal found that the worker’s activity wasn’t a job requirement and it wasn’t being performed for the benefit of or at the instruction of the employer.
• GDI had told the worker to perform the ritual as quickly as possible, but this wasn’t the same as instructing the worker to do it.
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Chinese Spaghetti Factory faces fines

• Chinese Spaghetti Factory Inc. in Boston faces $$108,031 in OSHA fines for safety violations.
• The company failed to install the required safety guards on a dumpling machine’s rotating shafts, a dangerous hazard for which the company was cited after an employee suffered serious injuries in 2022.
• OSHA conducted the follow-up inspection at the Newmarket Street facility to verify that the company had corrected the unsafe conditions identified in 2022 which resulted in an $82,500 penalty for failing to correct this hazard.
• OSHA’s safety inspection and a concurrent health inspection found several new and recurring hazards, which led OSHA to issue citations and propose $108,031 in penalties for allowing the dumpling of the machine’s gears to remain unguarded, among other issues.
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