Oklahoma state regulators have ruled that a law allowing employers to “opt out” of workers compensation is unconstitutional.  In their ruling, the Oklahoma Workers’ Compensation Commission said that the “the alternative workplace-benefit plans that some employers adopted under the law were a water mirage on the highway that…

  In 2014, fatal injuries on construction sites rose by 5 percent, to a total of 874. Hundreds of thousands of construction workers were hurt on the job, accounting for over one million worker’s compensation claims for both temporary and permanent injuries.  The number of workplace fatalities in 2014 was the highest reported since…

  A recent report from ProPublica explores the world of the “Workers’ Comp Industrial Complex,” wherein a group of middlemen have succeeded in “cutting costs” for companies at the expense of the injured and sick, all while making themselves rich in the process.  In 2013 alone, employers spent an estimated $89 billion on workers’…

  The concept of workers’ compensation originated in Wisconsin. But if the state’s GOP has its way, the system created in 1911 will be obliterated before the end of 2015.   Wisconsin Reps. John Spiros and Sen Duey Stroebel are expected to jointly introduce a bill to gut workers compensation according to a legislative memo…

  In Vermont, a scathing new report from State Auditor Doug Hoffer shows that state agencies are not doing enough to fight employee misclassification despite legislation and task forces aimed at combatting the problem.  The report reveals that state laws are not being properly enforced, subcontractors are not being vetted to ensure they have…

  An Uber X driver who had his face slashed in an unprovoked attack by a passenger has filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court seeking workers’ compensation insurance coverage from Uber Technologies.  The lawsuit also seeks damages and penalties against Uber as well as class action status.   56-year-old Adbo Ghazi is a…

  For the past year, the Association for Responsible Alternatives to Workers’ Compensation (ARAWC) has sought to gut workers’ compensation laws at the state level on behalf of their corporate donors.  The multi-state lobbying effort has already passed model legislation in Tennessee. Richard Evans, the group’s executive…

  A new report from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Adding Inequality to Injury: The Costs of Failing to Protect Workers on the Job, places partial blame for the growing problem of income inequality on a faulty workers’ compensation system.  According to the Department of Labor (DOL), roughly 4 million serious…

  The Texas Legislature has released a bipartisan report on employee misclassification which argues that “companies that pretend their employees are independent subcontractors are undermining free markets and encouraging illegal immigration, among other serious problems.”  The report comes after a nearly year-long investigation by the…

  Since 1993, state law has required the Texas Division of Workers’ Compensation (TDWC) to maintain information on the race and gender of every valid injury claim.  Yet, last year less than 8 percent of claims contained that information.  Without this information those who wish to study racial bias in the workers’ compensation…

  A recent report by the Miami Herald exposed “The Florida Plan,” a form of fraud that affects injured workers seeking workers’ compensation.  The report is part of the wave-making series by McClatchy which reveals the various ways in which misclassification harms workers and employers who abide by the law.   Author Nicholas…

  The president of the New York State Building & Construction Trades Council, James Cahill, is calling out state leaders in Albany who seek to dismantle worker-protective scaffolding laws. Noting the importance of the law for workers hoping to restart life after catastrophic injuries, Cahill questions why the focus of opponents’…