Author Archives: Edgar Romano

Are Concussions Worth the Risk for Hockey Players?

Today’s post comes from guest author Leonard Jernigan, from The Jernigan Law Firm.

Professional hockey, much like football, is considered to be a dangerous, high contact sport. With recent news of San Francisco 49er’s linebacker Chris Borland’s decision to retire at age 24 due to concussions, a lot of NHL players are feeling pressure to step-back and reevaluate if game-related concussions are worth the risk to their long-term health.

Carolina Hurricane’s 22 year-old forward Jeff Skinner has been side-lined three times for concussions since his first season in 2010-2011. Skinner’s teammate Brad Malone, a 25 year-old forward, considers his multiple concussions to be just “situations” and has made the decision to keep playing despite the risk of acquiring a long-term brain injury. According to the News & Observer, Malone stated, “If that situation was affecting my life at home and the people around me, then I think that’s when I sit down and sort of reevaluate.”

The danger of having too many concussions is that they can cause players to develop Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). CTE is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain that is caused by repetitive brain injuries, and according to Sportsmd.com CTE can cause symptoms and behaviors similar to Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. CTE is considered to be the only preventable form of dementia. Hockey players are faced with a serious issue: continue to play professionally or quit the sport for the sake of future quality of life.

Original post in the News and Observer by Chip Alexander 3/31/15

Read more about CTE here: http://www.sportsmd.com/concussions-head-injuries/chronic-traumatic-encephalopathy-cte-2/

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Wage Disparity and Workers’ Compensation

Today’s post comes from guest author Thomas Domer, from The Domer Law Firm.

When I began representing injured workers at a labor law firm in the 1970s, over one-third of the workforce was unionized. Almost all the workers I represented earned the maximum amount allowable to trigger the maximum workers’ compensation benefit in the event they missed work due to a work injury. Today with Union membership in the United States down to 6.6% of the workforce (about the same rate as at the turn of the 20th Century, few of the workers I represent are “maximum” earners, triggering maximum benefits under workers’ compensation. In fact, many of the workers I represent earn less than $10 per hour, which means their family income falls beneath the national poverty line.

Statistics about economic inequality are staggering. The richest 1% of the nation controls 40% of the wealth and earns 20% of the national income – proportions very similar to those in the early 20th Century (and up from about 25% and 9% in the 1970s when I started representing injured workers). Two recent books attempt to explain what, if anything, can be done to revive unionism. Historian Steve Frazer’s Age of Acquiescence looks at the long sweep of work in the United States. Frazer thinks the labor question is the key to confronting the economic gap and all its political and cultural consequences.  

The second book is by a lawyer who represented workers in Chicago, Thomas Geoghegan. Only One Thing Can Save Us suggests we have to return to the early labor union courage to challenge the inequities that surround workers – a spirit that is now largely evaporated. We have abandoned many of the crucial goals of the Progressive years – the rights to minimum wage, a limit on hours, unemployment insurance, and other benefits such as health insurance, pensions, paid vacations – that were won only through collective bargaining. 

The decline in unionism has hurt all American workers. About one in ten American workers is now self-employed (the most rapidly growing group in this category are maids and housekeepers, carpenters, landscapers, and hairdressers). Part time workers make up 17% of the labor force.  Additionally, workers hired as Independent Contractors (like many at FedEx, for example) are not eligible for unemployment compensation, do not have the right to organize a union, are not guaranteed overtime pay or the minimum wage, and lack access to the employment protections afforded by the Civil Rights Act. Moreover, the employers do not have to contribute to Social Security. We see this abuse often by employers characterizing workers as Independent Contractors who should be employees for whom the workers’ compensation, unemployment compensation premiums and payroll taxes is paid.

Times have changed and certainly not for the better.

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Stop Work Orders In Massachusetts Created $1.4 Million In Fines And Obtained Coverage For Over 5,000 Workers

Today’s post comes from guest author Leonard Jernigan, from The Jernigan Law Firm.

The Massachusetts Workers’ Compensation Advisory Council has released its Fiscal Year 2014 Annual Report (PDF link). This report contains some eyebrow-raising statistics. Between 2008 and 2014, Massachusetts was able to help over 50,000 workers receive coverage due to Stop Work Orders (SWOs). In 2014 alone the Agency was able to obtain insurance for over 5,000 workers who previously had no workers’ compensation coverage.

Stop Work Orders are issued to employers who are operating without workers’ compensation insurance. An investigator is sent to the worksite and if an order is issued, the employer must cease business operations immediately. Fines will then be given starting at $100 per day until penalties are paid and the company secures insurance.

In Fiscal Year 2014, there were 5,785 Field Investigations resulting in 2,150 SWOs issued and $1,430,599 in fines collected. While SWOs are in effect, employees are still paid for the first ten days out-of-work due to the order and the days missed are considered “days worked.” In addition to the fines that the employer receives, they will be added to a debarment list preventing them from bidding or participating in any state or municipal contracts for three years.

 

Original post on www.mass.gov/lwd/workers-compensation in April 2015.

 

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Workers’ Compensation Basics: Are You an Employee?

Today’s post comes from guest author Jon Rehm, from Rehm, Bennett & Moore.

Here’s the second blog post in a series on the basics of workers’ compensation.

As its name suggests, workers’ compensation compensates employees for on-the-job injuries. About 95 percent of time, the question of whether an injured worker is an employee is a simple “yes.” If you are paid a regular salary or by the hour via a regularly scheduled paycheck where your employer takes deductions out for Social Security, unemployment, Medicare, etc., you are most likely an employee.

But sometimes the issue of whether you are an employee isn’t as simple. Some states may exclude household and farm workers. Some states may exclude employees performing work for the business outside of the regular course of business hours. An employer might try to exclude an employee from workers’ compensation benefits by alleging the employee is an independent contractor.

If you are hurt on the job and your employer or their insurance company is claiming that you aren’t covered by workers’ compensation, you need to contact an experienced workers’ compensation attorney. Laws about which employees are covered by workers’ compensation are very specific and vary by state. You need an attorney who can tell you whether you are in fact covered by workers’ compensation, and, if not, what other possible ways there would be to compensate you for your injuries.

Read the first blog post in the series by clicking on this link: What is Workers’ Compensation?

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Pride Month is Time to #ThankFrank

Today’s post was shared by US Labor Department and comes from blog.dol.gov

Frank Kameny (Photo credit: Washington Blade archive photo by Doug Hinckle)
Frank Kameny (Photo credit: Washington Blade archive photo by Doug Hinckle)

Where would I be without the work I love?

There is nothing more rewarding to me than working on behalf of American workers. Serving U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez is both an honor and a joy, and I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished as a public servant in the Clinton and Obama administrations. The work is exhilarating, and it has become a central part of who I am.

But there was a time when it could’ve been taken from me in a heartbeat. Just because of another, equally central, part of who I am.

What is now unthinkable for me was a bitter reality for Frank Kameny. A Harvard-educated astronomer and war hero, Kameny was fired from his U.S. Map Service job in 1957 simply because he was gay. He never worked for a paycheck again.

Many know Frank’s story here in Washington, where he made his home and ran as the first out congressional candidate for the district’s seat in 1971. But he is less celebrated in other parts of the country. Here at the Labor Department, we’re going to change that. On June 23, we are inducting Frank into our prestigious Hall of Honor.

Like Cooperstown for our national pastime, our Hall of Honor immortalizes the giants renowned for the highest achievements in the counterweight to our pastimes – that is, our work. The names of these inductees inspire the same awe in those of us who are passionate about working families as Babe Ruth and Ernie…

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Union, Environmental Group Say Dozens of Nuclear Workers Suffering from Toxic Materials Exposure

Today’s post is from In These Times via our colleague Jon Gelman.

Evidence “strongly suggests a causal link between chemical vapor releases and subsequent health effects" at a Washington facility, according to a recent report. (Ellery / Wikimedia Commons)  

Since March 2014, nearly 60 workers at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state have sought medical attention for on-the-job exposure to chemical vapors released by highly toxic waste stored at the site, some as recently as August. At a public meeting held Wednesday in Pasco, Washington, Hanford workers described symptoms that include chronic headaches, respiratory problems, nerve damage and bloody urine.

The meeting, hosted by the United Association (U.A.) of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 598 and Hanford Challenge, a Seattle-based environmental watchdog group, was convened following the February 10 release by Department of Energy contractor Washington River Protection Services (WRPS) of a “corrective action implementation plan.” This plan was developed in response to recommendations in a report from the Savannah River National Laboratory released in October 2014.

Commissioned in response to worker exposures at Hanford’s tank farms, the Savannah River report found ongoing emissions of toxic chemical vapors from waste tanks, inadequate worker health and safety procedures and evidence that “strongly suggests a causal link between chemical vapor releases and subsequent health effects.”

The underground storage tanks—known as…

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Deadliest Jobs in the U.S.

Today’s post comes from guest author Leonard Jernigan, from The Jernigan Law Firm.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, lumberjacks, fishermen and pilots have the highest risk of death while working. Data collected in 2013 showed that for every 100,000 loggers over 80 were killed on the job; for every 100,000 fishermen over 60 were killed on the job; for every 100,000 pilots and flight engineers over 40 were killed on the job.

The rest of the top ten most dangers jobs (in order from greatest to least number of deaths on the job) are:

  1. extraction workers,
  2. roofers,
  3. refuse and recyclable material collectors,
  4. mining machine operators,
  5. driver/sales workers and truck drivers,
  6. farmers/ranchers, and
  7. electrical power-line installers and repairers.

Transportation accidents, falling, being struck by an object or equipment, and homicides are the most likely cause of fatalities. In the homicide category, cab drivers have the greatest risk, primarily because they are not properly trained to handle assaults.

Original post in the 1/28/215 Washington Post by Max Ehrenfreund

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Injured Worker Stakeouts: Do Private Investigators Commit Fraud?

Today’s post comes from guest author Leonard Jernigan, from The Jernigan Law Firm.

Have you noticed a suspicious vehicle lurking in your neighborhood lately, or is there a stranger that seems to be everywhere you go? If you have an active workers’ compensation claim, then you may not be imaging things. More and more, we are seeing insurance companies willing to spend thousands of dollars to hire private investigators to conduct clandestine surveillance of an injured worker’s daily activities and documenting these activities with video cameras. This type of surveillance often comes as a shock to our clients.

When these situations arise, the question we hear most often is, “Can they do that? Is this legal?” The answer is yes. Private investigators may photograph or video people in their private residences so long as they are clearly visible to the general public and there is no expectation of privacy. They can also conduct a full background investigation and obtain information about any other claims you made for personal injuries or if you have ever been charged with a crime.

While there are honest private investigators in the field, there are also those who will cheat. One investigator deflated an injured worker’s tire and then videotaped the person “working” to fix the flat tire. Another investigator reported talking on the phone to someone who told him that an injured worker was working while also receiving workers’ compensation benefits. A follow up done by our firm proved that the person with whom the investigator claimed to have talked has a serious hearing impairment and could not use the telephone.  

Injured workers need to be aware that surveillance can happen in any case. It has become part of the workers’ compensation system. By the way, if you do notice a suspicious car parked near your home, call the police.

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