A recent judicial outcome in a workers’ compensation case in Arizona has many critics across the country questioning the court’s ruling. The case has been noted for undercutting the time-honored expectation that an employee injured in the scope of employment at the worksite and during normal work hours will be awarded workers’ comp benefits….
Republican lawmakers in Ohio and organized labor interests in the state have historically been at loggerheads over system reforms and proposed changes to Ohio’s workers’ compensation program. Republicans supported major benefit cuts in 1997 that were overturned in a referendum. In 2006, then-Gov. Bob Taft signed business-friendly legislation sponsored by his party that reduced…
Recent complaints at retail giant Amazon’s warehouse in Allentown, Pennsylvania, have spurred officials with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) to investigate allegations regarding extreme working conditions, with no workers’ compensation for injuries or heat-related illnesses. Most part-time employees will not complain, for fear of being fired. Amazon hires through a staffing service,…
Workers’ compensation in Ohio is a singular matter, as it is in all other states. That is, the state-run programs that exist across the country are anything but cookie-cutter employee compensation systems. There are variances — often meaningful, often material — that exist among the states involving benefit payments, costs to employers, medical care…
When the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) discovers that employers have failed in their responsibility to ensure the safety of their employees, the agency has the authority to issue citations to the employer and propose measures to protect employees from injury. OSHA also may propose fines, both to help compensate injured workers, and to…
If further evidence was ever required that diligent representation and a strong focus on maximum recovery are absolutely essential in a workers’ compensation case — especially one involving an on-the-job back injury — researchers at Saint Louis University have just provided it. Raymond Tait, Ph.D. and professor of psychiatry at that university’s medical school, is…
Some Ohio lawmakers and legislators in other states — especially those concerned with workers’ compensation matters — have undoubtedly noted what is going on in California as regards professional athletes and the workers’ comp law in that state. Make that the players, as well. A rookie from the Cleveland Browns or Cincinnati Bengals, for…
“If there weren’t a lockout, I’d be in Cleveland,” says National Football League defensive lineman Travis Ivey of the Cleveland Browns professional football team. Instead, Ivey is at the University of Maryland’s football training facility, working through an injury that, absent the current lockout facing players, he would be rehabilitating in-house with the Browns’…
The “traditional” office or other work environment for many Ohio employees — as well as for workers throughout the rest of the country — has greatly changed over the past generation. “When I started working a few decades ago, things were pretty simple,” says Maureen McCarthy, a workers’ compensation manager at Liberty Mutual insurance…
Recent maneuvering and rhetoric by Ohio Gov. John Kasich and others concerning the state’s workers’ compensation system is merely indicative of the fact that the state’s Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (“BWC”) is seldom far from the minds of politicians, business leaders, labor organizers and a host of other interested parties. Kasich recently proposed a…