WashACE Blog

Workers' comp bills moving; keep calling your legislators

Keep your calls coming to legislators regarding workers' comp reform...it's working. Here's the latest from AWB's Kris Tefft:

Last Thursday, SB 5801, the Governor’s statewide provider network/COHE expansion bill, passed the Senate unanimously without any unfriendly (i.e., trial lawyer) amendment.  

Saturday night, HB 1869, which left committee including the trial lawyer amendments, was amended on the House floor to conform to SB 5801 (i.e., take out the trial lawyer provisions) and passed 95-1.  Rep. Condotta ran the striking amendment that fixed the bill and deserves our thanks.

 These are good developments.

Manuel Valdes reports on the on-going workers' comp reform debate for the Seattle Times this past weekend.

Our only significant issue with his characterization of the situation is his statement that

"Organized business wants to decrease benefits to lower spending..."

Business wants the system to work the way it was intended ... as a safety net and as partial and (mostly) temporary income replacement for workers injured on the job. The industrial insurance system was never intended to be a long-term welfare or pension program for individuals whose workplace injuries have healed and who have been trained or retrained with skills that allow them the opportunity and the dignity of working and supporting their families. 

Nor was it intended to pay for the treatment of illnesses that are generally present throughout society...illnesses that are not directly and demonstrably caused by contact with specific workplace conditions. 

When Washington has hundreds of former workers awarded lifetime pensions each fiscal year, compared with fewer than 10 in Oregon, by virtue of differences in the workers' compensation rules in the two states, something is amiss.

Business has been advocating three simple, straightforward changes to the workers' comp systems for years. For more detail see our earlier post, a Washington Research Council analysis of these proposals, and a January column by AWB President Don Brunell.

 

 

 

Another Bad Employment Report

Today's employment report confirms what most of us have expected. Another stagnant month. 

Total nonfarm payroll employment declined by 131,000 in July, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.5 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Federal government employment fell, as 143,000 temporary workers hired for the decennial census completed their work. Private sector payroll employment edged up by 71,000.

Here's the New York Times report.

Even optimists were disappointed by Friday’s report, and the trend it confirmed from the last three months. “No question about it, the three month average of adding 50,000 jobs is disappointing versus almost anybody’s expectations,” said Robert J. Barbera, chief economist of Mount Lucas Management, who has consistently argued that the economy is on track for an eventual strong recovery. “And certainly it’s less than half of what you need to keep things stable.”

Calculated Risk updated its bleak employment loss graphic.

In The Atlantic, Megan McCardle concludes:

... taken together with the new GDP figures, I think we can now dismiss any hopes of a summer recovery.

Cancel the tour.

U.S. Chamber Documents Tort Liability Costs for Small Business

Jeff Cornwall, at the Entrepreneurial Mind blog, notes the release of this study by the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform. From the report, conducted for the ILR by NERA Economic Consulting:

 The tort liability price tag for small businesses in America in 2008 was $105.4 billion.

Small businesses bore 81 percent of business tort liability costs,but took in only 22 percent
of revenue.
 
Small businesses paid $35.6 billion of their tort costs out of pocket as opposed to through insurance.

Cornwall's observation:

Tort reform stories like this do not fit in nicely with the vision perpetuated by the media of weak individuals getting what they deserve from large evil corporations.  However, the truth is that most often it is small business owners who bear the burden of over zealous attorneys in our increasingly "I want mine from life's lottery" culture.

So add growing litigation liability to the list of road blocks being put in the way of small businesses as they try to lead us out of this recession.

Right.