New York workers’ comp gives back to businesses

New York State Insurance Fund, New York’s largest workers’ compensation insurer, allocated $585 million to New York employers last year through its dividends and return-of-premium programs.

NYSIF returns funds to New York State businesses that prioritize worker safety protocols and exhibit strong safety records each year.

The majority of the New York State Insurance Fund’spolicyholders are small- and mid-sized businesses in every region of New York State, many of whom have been with the company for decades.

Companies either insure directly with NYSIF or belong to an NYSIF safety group where employers in the same industry can pool together to further reduce workers’ compensation expenses.
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Workers’ comp group gives back to charities

• The Workers Compensation Lawyer Coalition in Atlanta, Georgia has a new campaign to give back to disadvantaged children through a number of Metro Atlanta charities.
• The donations, totaling over $20,000 in annual support, include scholarships designed for future lawyers and orphaned children who lost their parents in an automotive accident.
• This is the fifth consecutive year the Workers Comp Coalition has created a fund to help local area families and students, and other programs include outreach projects and seminars to better educate the public on workplace law and everyday employment rights.
• The Coalition is made up of almost a dozen Georgia law firms that specialize in workers’ compensation and law reform at the state level.
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Haz-mat training on the rise

• Recognizing the importance of chemical incident training, the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation (BWC) offers free training for first responders, including volunteer departments.
• Their focus is on hazard awareness and initial actions during chemical emergencies.
• Additionally, BWC provides a wide range of safety courses and virtual training, including topics such as chemical safety, fire and explosion safety, emergency response guidebook, and air monitoring.
• They fund courses covering various levels of hazardous materials training, incident response exercises, intermodal training, rail/highway incident response training, as well as hazardous materials planning and survey studies.
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A closer look at maritime safety

• Federal officials are pushing the U.S. maritime industry to submit to the government information on incidents that had nearly resulted in vessel collisions as a way to improve safety.
• Marine casualties and many other incidents are reportable via separate regulations under either OSHA or the U.S. Coast Guard jurisdiction.
• The Safe Maritime Transportation System is being developed through an interagency agreement between the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics and the U.S. Maritime Administration.
• SafeMTS will be used to identify early warnings of safety problems and potential safety issues by uncovering hidden, at-risk conditions not previously exposed from analysis of reportable accidents and incidents.
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