Monthly Archives: September 2011

The NFL’s surprising occupational hazard: obesity that kills

Today's NFL linemen have to be bigger than ever.

Today’s guest post comes to us from our colleague Len Jernigan of North Carolina.

Most people know that football is dangerous. We see reports of NFL players with every kind of gruesome injury imaginable. Even suicidal depression, it turns out, is a potential hazard of playing football. Of course playing in the NFL is both rewarding and risky.

There is one common health problem among NFL players, however, that usually goes unmentioned. We thought it was a fitting topic for our workers’ law blog because NFL linemen must embrace this condition in order to stay in peak performance. It’s called chronic obesity.

These days, to be an NFL lineman, you not only have to be fast and strong, you also have to be fat.

Since the 1990s, Continue reading →

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Workers’ Compensation Q&A: Hurt by somebody not in my company

QUESTION:  SOMEONE NOT EMPLOYED BY MY COMPANY HURT ME.  AM I STILL COVERED?

ANSWER: YOU ARE COVERED NO MATTER WHO EMPLOYED THE PERSON AT FAULT.

It was right before Mother’s Day and Joe’s job as a deliveryman for Flowers R Us was in high gear. He had eight bouquets to deliver before noon and time was tight. At the corner of 88th and Broadway, the light finally turned green. Joe checked for the all clear and then hit the accelerator. Out of nowhere a yellow cab barreled across 88th Street, running a red light and ramming smack into Joe’s delivery van.

Luckily, Joe was wearing his seat belt so he didn’t go flying through the windshield. However, his neck suffered the worse case of whiplash the EMS technicians had ever seen. After the ER visit, the X-rays, the brace, the painkillers and a lot of police reports and insurance paperwork, Joe called his boss.  He was definitely in no shape to pick up vases of flowers, let alone get behind the wheel of a vehicle. He was going to be out of work for a couple of weeks. Was Joe covered by Workers’ Comp? Since the accident was caused by someone who was not a Flowers-R-Us employee, Joe and his boss didn’t know if Joe was eligible for coverage. What should Joe do!? Continue reading →

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SeaWorld killer whale attacks expose incomplete incident reporting

SeaWorld is defending itself against accusations that inadequate safety measures were to blame for a trainer's deathThis week a trial began in Florida between SeaWorld theme parks and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration(OSHA). The trial is over several citations and a fine stemming from incidents in which killer whales (also known as orcas) killed or injured trainers at SeaWorld water parks. Most recently, on February 24, 2010, a giant killer whale named Tilikum gruesomely killed trainer Dawn Brancheau by grabbing her ponytail and pulling her under the water in front of a horrified audience.

In August of 2011, SeaWorld was fined $75,000 by OSHA for three safety violations, including one in connection with Brancheau’s death. The agency’s investigation “revealed that SeaWorld trainers had an extensive history of unexpected and potentially dangerous incidents involving killer whales at its various facilities,” the OSHA statement said. Continue reading →

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What’s so dangerous about hotel room cleaning? It turns out, a lot.

Exposure to harsh chemicals and repeated bending can take its toll.

As we shared with you last week, hotel housekeeping may not seem dangerous, but it can be grueling physical labor.

A recent study published by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reported that tasks including dusting, vacuuming, changing linens, making beds, and scrubbing bathrooms may lead to a range of injuries. Some of the most common ones include:

Continue reading →

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Monday Workers’ Compensation Q&A: Preexisting Injury

QUESTION: I HAVE A PREEXISTING INJURY TO THE SAME BODY PART I HURT AT WORK. DOES THIS MEAN I CANNOT CLAIM WORKERS COMPENSATION BENEFITS?

ANSWER: A PREEXISTING INJURY DOES NOT STOP A CLAIM.  FILE THAT CLAIM!    

Joe Worker was a high school quarterback.  Until that knee injury sidelined his dreams of playing for the NFL.  So he became one of the best construction workers New York City could ask for.  Until one day, on the job, Joe tripped over stuff somebody should have put away, and landed on that bad knee. Now, if his knee hadn’t been so screwed up in the first place, Joe would have been fine.  He would have dusted himself off and gone on with the day.  But the old injury flared up and Joe was sidelined again.  Joe didn’t know what to do.  It was, after all, his bad knee that made things worse, not a minor trip and fall on the job.  So he hesitated filing a new claim.  What should he do? Continue reading →

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The most dangerous job in the service industry is done mainly by women

Hotel room cleaning is a job that comes with risks.

Hotels can be a dangerous place to work. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, of all service industry workers, hotel workers have the highest rate of injury at 5%. The average for all service industries is only about 3.4%.

Hotel room cleaners have significantly higher injury rates than other hotel workers, with nearly 8% experiencing Continue reading →

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Senior Partner Edgar Romano Included in 2011 Top Trial Lawyers in N.Y.

Edgar Romano

Edgar Romano, Senior Partner at Pasternack Tilker Ziegler Walsh Stanton & Romano LLP, has been included in the 2011 Top 100 Trial Lawyers in N.Y. by the National Trial Lawyers, an organization composed of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers from each state.

Membership in the National Trial Lawyers organization is obtained through special invitation only to those attorneys who exemplify superior qualifications, reputation, influence, stature, and profile as trial lawyers, both civil plaintiff and criminal defense.

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Monday Workers’ Compensation Q&A: Punching In

QUESTION: I DID NOT PUNCH IN FOR WORK.  DOES THIS MEAN I AM NOT COVERED IF I HAVE AN ACCIDENT?

ANSWER: IF YOU ARE AT WORK AND YOU DON’T PUNCH IN, YOU ARE STILL COVERED. PUNCHING IN DOES NOT START COVERAGE FOR A WORKER.

Joe was running late.  A custodian at The City College, a CUNY school, the minute he got onto the campus, his radio crackled with news of a boiler freaking out in old Sheppard Hall.  Rather than punch in, he ran straight to the boiler to take care of business. Running down the hall to the boiler room, he passed a bunch of students hanging out on the floor as young people are want to do.  And before you could say Workers’ Comp, Joe went flying through the air.  The boiler wasn’t the only thing that broke that morning.  So did Joe’s right ankle.

After the ER and the X-rays, and the cast and the crutches and the really great painkillers, Joe called his supervisor to put in a claim.  Imagine Joe’s surprise when his supervisor told him that because he hadn’t punched in before heading to the broken boiler, he was not covered.  Joe panicked.  That ER visit was going to cost a bundle, and it was a bundle he didn’t have.  What should he do? Continue reading →

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