Oregon considers expanding workers’ comp 

• Residents in Oregon that are injured on the job may no longer have to use vacation and sick time when they go to medical appointments to get treated for injuries.
• The state Senate unanimously passed a bill that would allow workers to get paid for time spent on getting medical care or physical therapy to treat workplace injuries. The measure now goes to the House.
• Senate Bill 418 would close a gap in the coverage that Oregon employees currently get through the state’s workers’ compensation system, which pays employees when they miss work due to an on-the-job injury.
• Under current law, workers with an approved workers’ compensation claim get paid for the time they miss work due to an injury but only if they miss more than four hours of work at a time.
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Union lauds passage of new workers’ bill

• Washington state lawmakers signed a bill into law that offers new protections to warehouse workers, which fights against fulfillment productivity quotas.
• Recent legal complaints leveled against Amazon have included OSHA abd charges that the company’s workers run the risk of lower back injuries due to the frequency and weight of lifting packages.
• Amazon disputes those accusations, saying it has actually reduced injury rates through risk mitigation policies such as safety innovations, process improvements, and other investments.
• Following the bill’s passage in Washington, the Teamsters say similar legislation is pending in 12 other states, and already passed last year in California and New York.
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Amputee denied workers’ comp benefits for smoking

• A woman has filed an appeal after her workers’ comp benefits were pulled for failing to stop smoking while undergoing medical treatments.
• The case could establish a precedent allowing employers to use a broad range of claimants’ underlying health conditions to suspend benefits.
• A Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-based Workers’ Compensation Judge Robert Goduto ruled that grocery chain Wegmans could suspend its compensation benefits to Bonnie Cole.
• Cole sustained a severe ankle fracture that failed to fully heal and eventually led to amputation. A doctor has advised her to quit smoking during the healing process.
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More fraud indictments for CPA

• Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Jr., announced two indictments of CPA  Steven Lyon for defrauding the New York State Insurance Fund.
• The scheme consisted of stealing more than $10 million dollars in workers’ compensation insurance premium payments by filing doctored payroll-related documents for workers of façade restoration and scaffolding companies.
• Lyon is charged with three counts of Insurance Fraud in the First Degree, five counts of Insurance Fraud in the Second Degree, eight counts of Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree and nine counts of Forgery in the Second Degree in a New York State Supreme Court indictment.
• Lyon engaged in a similar scheme with Anaar Construction & Contracting Corp. and its owner Anaar Construction & Contracting Corp.
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