Another OT: Workers comp $$$

Bleed.

that goes to payroll another has to go to workers comp... its that high.. the high percent of fake injuried for people who do not want to work jacked up the premiums along with high dollar medical care.... i was in an eye doctors office once and he was on the phone with another eye doctor.. the other doc. wanted him to check out one of his patients...as the eye would not heal after getting a chemical burn.. the first question was it a workers comp. case??? i aske the doc. about this and he said that some work. comp. cases the worker does not want to get better and dont want to go back to work and it drives up the cost of care....

Machine shops are probably a lot safer than driving a truck for a living. Any insurance payout is bound to come back with increased premiums - God forbid that shareholders should have to dip into their pockets to pay for the bad years after all the good years.

I used to have a policy in my truck business that we did not have workers comp - I paid the premium - but anyone injured was always put on alternate duties until they were fit to return to normal work. This kept our premium costs about 50% less than our competition and return to work was remarkably quick in most cases, reported injuries also reduced - I reckon that about

50% of injuries prior to introduction of that policy were not work related - many were weekend sports injuries that somehow happened at about 8am on a Monday morning.

Plus I always insisted that their supervisor took the injured worker to an industrial health clinic - not their GP/M.D. - GPs love workers comp cases and just see it as another source of long term income. Never let an injured worker go home to his GP.

Always show compassion to the injured worker - if they think you dont care then you get a long term claim and probably deserve it. I had a driver with broken legs back at work (in a wheelchair and answering phones) within a week when handled correctly, and someone with a dislocated finger taking three months 'cos his supervisor told him he was an idiot for getting his finger trapped.

Make their supervisor responsible for all of the admin and finding alternate duties associated with the claim - make him/her realise how much work is involved with any claim and not let the employees get away with unsafe practices in future.

Gak! that's incredible, only in America...., excuse me while i go puke.

--Loren

These responses are not incouraging. The maintenance department is only just breaking even now. If we get another increase it will be operating at a loss. I do not want to have to close it and lay off workers who have been with us for 30 years or more. These guys are part of my family.

Roger,

That's the kind of policy that can have you put in jail. Denying workers their right to Workers Comp. To return to work on alternative duties would require a release from the Doctor.

In the state where I live, a worker has the right to see his own Dr., all he has to do is have a card on file at work with his Doctor's name on it, prior to the accident. And in an emergrncy, he goes to the closest emergency room. He never has to see a company Doctor.

Unless answering the phone is in this driver's job description it should be the drivers choice whether he wants to return to work on alternative duty. You can't require someone to work out of their job classification, just because you want to.

These are exactly the type of injustices that Unions fight against daily with small and large companies.

Don, IBEW Local #1245 Steward

Injustices! No friggin' wonder all the work is going offshore.

Cheers Trevor Jones

Carpentry has one of the highest WC rates-

check out this chart

LOL , I was in the SIIS ( state industrial insurance system?) the day before a guy drove his truck into the building and started shooting people. I drove a freind that had been there many times and while I was waiting for him I went to the info. desk. I asked them if I got full health coverage through my insurance company could I skip paying WC ? They said no , that I had to go through this place. I said "Isn't that monopolistic and thus against the law?" A few minutes later while standing in the loby burning time , 4 sercurty gaurds converged and showed me out of the building.

I simply don't get it. If I have coverage 24 hours a day I still have to pay for WC that won't pay when the time comes...

This morning I got kicked off a job cause it was sunday. I didn't even unload the truck and a renta pig shows up and says to go away. I told him that I've only hear that with gated communities and he said it was , the whole area. There are no gates and pass codes ! What am I to do ? Start shooting to get my $50 trip charge out of him. Its not posted. Tell him to FO and have the cops show up? Change the system, people say if you don't like it. Yeah , RIGHT ! I don't get up at 3:30 am for nothing . Now , can I find the home owners' association #. As if that will do any good.

"Don Murray" >

Unless answering the phone is in this driver's job description it should be the

Job classification? Are you sure this is a Union shop? In the real world where employees are productive (i.e. a non union shop) they do what work is required of them and for which they have an ability to do.

Hey Don what injustice is ther to have an employee do what work the employee requires? I feel that it is injust to subject an employer and business owner to bow to your union's tactics of dictating to him how he should run his company and how he can deploy his workers.

Getting paid for your time at work isn't enough. You have to also run the job to be satisfied.

Rick Who used to be a very productive employee before I joined a union.

yes, i was a more than a little perturbed by John's post. Unions have a place, my Dad was a IBEW his whole life while i never have been in a union. but my Dad, Brother, Mom and myself see the utter waste that they can cause.

Hewlett-Packard had a layoff in 1998 or so, and a shipping guy interviewed for and got the job of "executive assistant" to the site manager (a woman), it was a _huge_ step up for him and he did a great job (shipping folks know about schedules and deadlines).

this was the result of HP offering "re-deployment" benefits vs just a layoff.

--Loren

BULL SHIT if he can do other work you better belive he will if he wants to get paid what hell injustice are you (Don the STEWARD???) tailing about? Ray Mueller

That really is it, you waive right to sue when you enter the system. Employees in AZ can opt out of W Comp. The driving force behind safety in the construction industry is the fact that a bad year with W Comp can drive a profitable company into the red really fast. I'm not aware of any state that requires business owners to carry W Comp on themselfs, many do however because it can be cheaper than disability ins. My W Comp rate on welders working on gas pipelines is 12.21 %, on clerical employees it's .24%!

regards, JTMcC.

Ray,

The injustice I'm talking about is denying a worker his right to Worker's Comp. And denying him his right to see his own Doctor. As for working out of his classification, it's one thing if it is mutually agreed upon, like in slow times to prevent lay-offs, and it's a whole other story if you require him to do this when he can't perform his regular job due to an industrial accident. I always wonder what happens to the person that was paid to answer the phone before this guy got hurt. Did they get laid off because this guy is required to work out of his classification?

Don, who doesn't think Ray sees the big picture

Our job classifications were substantially changed back in the 1980s to make sure that if someone was adequately trained they should be able to do any task required of them. You could be a Scale 10 truck driver (Road Trains, etc) but you must be able to do all the jobs in the Scales 1 to 9 which would include greaser, truck washer, operations allocator, answering phones.

We never laid anyone off - its amazing how many jobs that should be done dont get done and having an extra pair of hands helps out with all those niggly little things.

The Trade Unions were more than happy with the process and were actively involved with getting other companies to do the same thing for their employees - an enlightened Trade Union Organiser suggested the approach to me. Staying at home after being injured is a terrible thing for the employee - they lose pride, lose contact with co workers and friends and often end up with depression and needing other medications, and it takes them a long time to get back to full time work if you just let them sit at home. Getting an employee back in the work place is the very best medicine for them - but their GP wont tell them that because they want to make as much money out of the poor bugger as possible.

As a unionist I think that you need to look at the latter part of the 20th Century and try and at least get into that - better still try and get into the 21st Century.

1099!!! No WC, no SS. But you have to limit yourself to 2 employees.

John

Please note that my return address is wrong due to the amount of junk email I get. So please respond to this message through the newsgroup.

But we got those two big huge lakes, you could spend an eternity here with that boat you're building! :)

Tim

-- In the immortal words of Ned Flanders: "No foot longs!" Website @