More than 100 years ago, Workers’ Compensation was established as a “grand bargain” between workers and employers. The state legislature enacted laws where injured workers gave up their right to sue if they were hurt on the job as a result of their employers’ negligence in exchange for a no fault system of medical and wage loss benefits. 

Included in this bargain was the right of the injured worker to obtain financial compensation for a permanent injury to an extremity, such as arms, legs, hands, feet, fingers and toes. Unfortunately, this “grand bargain” – at least as it pertains to injured workers – has been under attack for the last 10 years in New York under the guise of rising costs to employers.

During the New York State budget negotiations, the Business Council created a false narrative that injured workers’ benefits for extremity injuries were archaic and didn’t account for modern medicine. They claimed that benefits paid were creating a crisis in New York and forcing businesses to flee the state. As a result of their lobbying, the New York State Legislature directed the Workers’ Compensation Board in April 2017 to create a task force consisting of labor, medical providers, and insurance groups to issue proposed revisions that account for advances in modern medicine that enhance healing and result in better outcomes. What we have subsequently found out is that the Workers’ Compensation Board, without direction or authority, has been secretly working for the last couple of years to not only revise the current guidelines, but to scrap them altogether. These provisions would essentially eliminate most schedule loss of use extremity benefits to injured workers. As an attempt to not fuel the fire, they released their proposed revisions at 11:00 p.m. on the Friday of Labor Day weekend.

The Workers’ Compensation Board has been heavily criticized for their Anti Injured Worker Proposals by a number of labor unions, NYCOSH, physician groups, Workers’ Compensation practitioners, and injured workers themselves. As a result of the outrage, the New York State Assembly’s Committee on Labor held hearings at which a number of people from the taskforce testified. When representatives from the Board were asked why there were secret meetings years before the Legislature directed them to review the issue, their weak response was that “they” couldn’t understand some of the large discrepancies between the findings of the treating doctors and the insurance doctors. However, that argument holds little weight because the scenario they cited was the exception rather than the norm. They also pointed out that they relied heavily on the New York State Orthopedic Group for input.  Yet, when the Chair of the task force, Dr. Jeffrey Lozman, an orthopedist, and Dr. John M. Olsewsky, President of the NYS Society of Orthopedic Surgeons, testified, it became clear that their recommendations were largely disregarded in a way that would negatively impact injured workers.

It is clear that the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board is pushing the Business Council’s agenda. What is unclear is why the Board seems to be taking sides when their mission statement is to “protect the rights of employees and employers by ensuring the proper delivery of benefits to those who are injured or ill, and by promoting compliance with the law.”

Injured workers don’t have the means to fight, and but there are still steps you can take to defeat these harmful proposals. There is a 45-day comment period set to expire on October 23, 2017. You can contact your state legislator and the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board to voice your opposition. For additional information please go to:  www.nyworkerscompensationalliance.org/protectinjuredworkers

Workers’ Compensation was set up to help you if you are ever injured on the job. These benefits are your right. They are your protection. Just because you might not need the benefits now, doesn’t mean you or a loved one won’t need them down the road. Only by working together can we fight to make sure that these benefits as we know them remain in place. While a single voice might not make a difference, a loud collective voice stands a better chance. Go to the link and voice your disapproval. Have your family and friends do the same.

Catherine M. Stanton is a senior partner in the law firm of Pasternack Tilker Ziegler Walsh Stanton & Romano, LLP. She focuses on the area of Workers’ Compensation, having helped thousands of injured workers navigate a highly complex system and obtain all the benefits to which they were entitled. Ms. Stanton has been honored as a New York Super Lawyer, is the past president of the New York Workers’ Compensation Bar Association, the immediate past president of the Workers’ Injury Law and Advocacy Group, and is an officer in several organizations dedicated to injured workers and their families. She can be reached at 800.692.3717.

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