Quote of the day
"The inner workings of a trust require its "healthy" participants to bear the financial risk of the group's 'unhealthy' members,"
Bob Poitras, a property casualty consultant commenting on how to handle the financial burden associated with the failed New York trusts
Property/Casualty Consultant Weighs in on New York Trusts
A property casualty consultant writes criticizing the suggestion that the burden of failed self-insurance trusts be transferred to healthy trusts. A letter writer suggests that they be transferred elsewhere—perhaps to the task payers. The consultant calls this hypocritical saying that the failure of the New York trusts in as example of risky pricing practices and poor government regulation of all trusts. Timesunion.com
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Plot to Steal Death Benefit Checks Foiled
A year after losing her husband in an accident in an oil sands project in Alberta, a widow is finally receiving her death benefits. Her husband, a temporary Chinese worker, was covered by workers’ compensation and a union group insurance program, but his widow was the victim of at least one plot instigated by her sister-in-law to steal her checks. Journal of Commerce (Canada)
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Peach State Judges Lose Perks Because of Workers’ Comp Case
Georgia’s superior court judges are scheduled to lose their county perks including health insurance. Why? Oddly enough it stems from a negligence suit filed by the widow of a superior court judge against a sheriff. The judge was shot by suspect Brian Nichols in 2002 during a court appearance. Attorneys for the sheriff argued that the lawsuit was barred by the exclusive remedy of workers’ compensation, but an appellate court upheld a ruling denying that workers’ comp was an exclusive remedy. The reason is that the judge was actually a state official for compensation purposes. The widow’s lawsuit will proceed. By Greg Land, Fulton County Daily Report (Law.com)
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Privatization for New Zealand’s Workers’ Comp Fund?
The National Party of New Zealand has admitted to a plan, if elected, to open up accident workplace insurance to competition, but denied that there are plans to privatize the Accident Compensation Corporation. The party was forced into the admission after Merrill Lynch mentioned suggested the possibility in a report. Competition has been tried in the past resulting in a $200 million in savings for employers, a 50% decrease deaths, and a return to work rate of 50%. By Roeland van den Bergh and Vernon Small, The Dominion Post via stuff.co.nz (New Zealand)
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Japanese Government Wants to Protect Temporary Workers
Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party plans to require staffing agencies to disclose their commissions and ask client companies to take on the responsibility for covering temp workers’ comp insurance. The requirement is part of three-pronged plan that the Party hopes will reduce workplace accidents by requiring that the client companies share in the costs of workers’ compensation for temporary employees even though they are dispatched from the temp agency. Daily Yomiuri Online (Japan)
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State Fund Offers Relief to Businesses in Fire Zone
The State Compensation Insurance Fund is offering credits to policy holders that have suffered business disruptions because of the California fires. State Fund will work with policy holders that are unable to report payroll figures, make payments, or have been cancelled for credit reasons related to the wildfires. (Earthtimes)
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