Worker Compensation

The Federal Employment Compensation Act provides workers compensation for nonmilitary, federal employees. Many of its provisions remain typical of most workers compensation laws. Many times awards remain limited to disability or death sustained while in the performance of the employee s duties. The act covers medical expenses due to the disability and may require 

Work-Related Injuries (29 CFR 1904) Workers Compensation Statutes OSHA Record Keeping (29 CFR 1904) 

Work-Related Stress Shift Work (NIOSH Publications) 

There are reasons why even those who are not laid off may be affected by the reduction in force. Downsizing frequently increases job stress (Mishia and Spreitzer 1998), and stress is known to affect workers health and their tolerance for pain. Just as some professional golfers can play with a sore back or some ballplayers can play with bad legs when they want to, workers who enjoy their work or who are otherwise 

The severity rate, which is often called the lost-time workday rate, is used to determine how serious the injuries and illnesses are. The same formula can be used to calculate the restricted workday case rate. A company may have a low incident rate or few injuries and illnesses but, if the injuries and illnesses that are occurring result in many days away from work or restricted workdays, the lost-time workdays or restricted workday cases can be as costly as, or more costly than, having a large number of no lost workdays or restricted workday injuries or illnesses, which have only medical costs associated with them. Lost-time workday cases can definitely have a greater impact on your workers compensation costs and premiums. 

Calculation of the severity rate is similar to the incident rate except that the total number of lost-time workdays or restricted workdays is used in place of the number of OSHA recordable injuries/illnesses. The severity rate for a company can be calculated in the following manner  

Number of your lost-time workdays x 200,000 (work hour constant) Total number of hours that your employees worked during the year 

The incident and severity rates are both expressed as a rate per 100 full-time workers. This provides a standard comparison value for a company whether it has 20 or 1,000 workers. Thus, both the 20-employee company and 1,000-employee companies can compare their safety and health performance to each other. 

Sometimes the temptation exists to focus on only the lost-time workday cases, but how can you identify which injury or illness is going to result in a lost-time workday At times, the difference between a medical treatment injury and a lost-time workday injury may only be a matter of inches or chance. Thus, it is more logical to address your total injury problem. 

Each employer is expected to provide protection for his or her workers who become ill or are injured from something within the workplace. The premiums which the employer pays are to provide medical treatment and supplemental income when a worker is unable to return to work immediately. This supplemental income is usually 66 2/3 percent of the worker s wages and is not taxed. Once a worker files a claim for workers compensation, the employee isnotusually allowed to sue his or her employer. 

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Workers compensation insurance as required by laws and regulations applicable to and covering employees of the toller engaged in the performance of the manufacturing services. 

Let s consider some of the important cost factors of a JHA. These methods can help to improve job procedures and can help to reduce costs that result from absenteeism and workers compensation claims, as well as hidden costs that are usually overlooked. These hidden costs include management time for investigation lost time for other workers who experience some level of trauma hiring and training temporary workers bad publicity, poor product quality, employee morale OSHA citation/fines, court costs, and so on. Reduction of these costs can lead to increased productivity and improved cost to the bottom line. 

To determine which jobs you should analyze first, review your injury and illness reports such as the OSHA 200 log, your medical case histories, your first-aid cases, and workers compensation claims. First, you should conduct a JHA for jobs with the highest rates of disabling injuries and illnesses. Do not forget jobs in which you have had close calls or near hits. You should give these incidents a high priority. Analyses of new jobs and jobs in which changes have been made in processes and procedures should be the next priority. 

Provide employee accident experience for the past 5 years, including the current year. The submittal shall specifically include OSHA recordable cases rate, lost and restricted workday cases rate, vehicle accident rate, and number of fatalities with a description of each. The workers compensation interstate experience modification rate should be less than 1.0, and applicable SIC codes should be noted. 

Fatal accident rate Lost-time injury rate Capital cost of accidents Number of plant/community evacuations Cost of business interruption Cost of workers compensation claims Number of hazardous material spills (in excess of a threshold) Tonnage of hazardous material spilled Tonnage of air, water, liquid and solid effluent Tonnage of polluting materials released into the environment Employee exposure monitoring Number of work related sickness claims Number of regulatory citations and fines Ecological impact of operations (loss or restoration of biodiversity, species, habitats)... 

Contact dermatitis is a common reason for dermatology referrals and constitutes up to 90% of all workers compensation claims for dermatologic conditions. Although most often seen in adulthood, contact dermatitis can affect all age groups, with females at slightly greater risk than males.28... 

Muller J., Wheeler W.C., Gentleman J.F., Suranyi G. and Kusiak R.A., 1983, Study of Ontario Miners 1955-77. Pat 1, Ontario Ministry of Labor, Ontario Workers Compensation Board. 

Muller, J., Wheeler, W.C., Gentleman, J.F. Suranyi, G. and R. Kusiak, Study of Mortality of Ontario Miners, Part I, Rep. Ontario Ministry of Labour,Ontario Workers Compensation Board, Atomic Energy Control Board of Canada (1983). 

The economic impact of a disease can be measured by the direct costs of medical care and workers compensation or disability payments, and the indirect costs associated with lost workdays and loss of productivity. In 1984, the estimated annual direct and indirect costs of occupational skin diseases exceeded 22 million.69 However, considering that the actual annual incidence may be 10 to 50 times greater than reported in the BLS data, the total annual cost of occupational skin diseases in 1984 may have ranged from 222 million to 1 billion.69... 

Mathias, C.G.T., Contact dermatitis and workers compensation — Criteria for establishing occupational causation and aggravation. J. Am. Acad. Dermatol., 20, 842, 1989. 

The quality of life experienced by people with MCS is shaped, to a great extent, by the level of awareness of environmental health issues where they live and work. Some are recipients of workplace accommodations in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act others are harassed and ostracized at work, or fired from their jobs. Some disabled by chemical exposures in the workplace receive workers compensation the majority of chemical-illness claims are denied. Some cities, schools and other institutions have adopted fragrance-free policies and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs to reduce chemical barriers and dangers in public places others still resist despite all the prevalence studies and research indicating that MCS is a serious threat to public health. 

L. Matthews. Jefferson, NC McFarland, 1998. Contains chapters written by a psychologist, an attorney and two physicians with expertise in MCS. A medical section addresses porphyria, SPECT scan studies, and psychological issues related to MCS. A legal section discusses how one state s workers compensation system fails workers in a toxic age. A personal section discusses the author s experience in the workers compensation system science and the literature is addressed in yet another section. 

Employee health records, of course, are not the only source of valuable health knowledge in the plant. Workers compensation and insurance records, although limited in number, can be even more useful if they are available. 

In those jurisdictions where a formal workers compensation system is in effect, the compensation health records provide the most definitive information available because the medical, social, and work history of each employee who applies for workers compensation is investigated in comprehensive detail and is made available in large part to management. Currently, relatively few illnesses, as compared to injuries, are considered for workers compensation claims. However, if a cluster can be found with the same type of complaint, that information can be invaluable. Similar information can be obtained from private insurance companies who provide employee coverage in place of workers compensation. 

What is the incidence and nature of relevant cases reported to workers compensation or insurance agencies ... 

Workers compensation benefits pay workers for medical expenses and lost wages due to occupational injury or illness. In exchange for carrying workers compensation insurance, companies are protected against legal... 

Payroll Charges This item includes workers compensation, social security premiums, unemployment taxes, paid vacations, holidays, and some part of health and dental insurance premiums. The figure has steadily declined from 1980 and now is 30 to 40 percent of operating labor plus supervision expenses. 

Gruber, Johnathan, and Alan Krueger. 1991. The Incidence of Mandated Employer-Provided Insurance Lessons From Workers Compensation Insurance. In Tax Policy and the Economy 5. Edited by James Poterba. Cambridge Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press. 

Insufficient economic incentives - in the form of workers compensation, the tort system, regulatory fines, and insurance. 

Cases involving workers who injure themselves on the job are subsumed by the workers compensation system. The relationship between workplace-caused sleep deprivation and injury is another area in which the traditional scope of liability has been expanded. 

Sleep deprivation and sleep disorders question the scope of the definition of injury and work function in workers compensation cases. Generally, unless a clear link can be shown between the sleep disorder or deprivation and the scope of employment, courts are unwilling to grant compensation to the worker. Courts have regarded sleep and work as separate and distinct. 

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