THE ATTACK ON INJURED WORKERS

This is a guest post from Michael Gillick and originally appeared in the South Central Labor News.

          For over a hundred years, injured workers in Wisconsin have been compensated by what everyone agrees is the best worker’s compensation system in the country.  Now, however, the extreme right has organized an all-out attack on that system.  Representative John Spiros has proposed a bill that would turn Wisconsin’s system of worker’s compensation from being the best to being the worst in the nation.

          Wisconsin’s worker’s compensation system was set up more than a hundred years ago.  Before that, injured workers got nothing unless they sued their employers, and even then they rarely won.  The worker’s compensation law allowed the workers to receive compensation for medical expense and wage loss regardless of who was at fault.  In return, the worker was prevented from suing his or her employer.  This has often been called “the Grand Bargain.”

          There is one thing that has made Wisconsin’s system so great.  Almost from the beginning, any changes in the law were made by a committee, the Worker’s Compensation Advisory Council (WCAC).  This committee consists of representatives from labor, management and insurers.  The Council negotiated with each other for changes, and all changes had to be agreed to by unanimous vote.  What this did was take politics out of the process and allowed for modest and reasonable changes that would benefit both sides.  As a result, Wisconsin had the best, most consistent and reasonable law in the nation.  Workers were better compensated than in most states.  They chose their own doctors.  They returned to work faster than in most states.  Employers had lower rates than in most states, and they paid less per case than most other states.  Most important, in more than 80% of the cases, workers got their benefits without having to hire a lawyer.

          Now the extreme right wing is attacking that entire system.  Representative John Spiros, whose 86^th district includes Wausau, Mosinee and Marshfield, has proposed a bill, Assembly Bill 501, which will severely damage the ability of workers to receive adequate compensation for their work injuries.  Among other things, Representative Spiros’ bill will make the following changes:

1. It will cut the statute of limitations on traumatic injuries from 12 years to 2 years.  So, if the injured worker does not file an application for hearing within two years, his or her claims will be gone forever.
2. It will cut the worker’s benefits by the percentage of negligence attributable to the injured worker.  This ends the Grand Bargain in a most vicious way, since the negligence of the worker will be considered, while the negligence of the employer will be ignored.  This also means that it is likely that every injured worker will have to hire a lawyer to fight the employer’s claims that the worker was partly or fully to blame for the injury.
3. It will allow the employer to stop all payments to the injured worker if the worker is fired for “misconduct”.  This encourages employers to dream up reasons for firing injured workers.
4. It will abolish the right of the injured worker to choose his or her own doctor.  Instead, the employer would pick what doctor will treat the worker.  Employers will likely pick doctors who they know will say that the worker was not injured at work or that the worker does not have any permanent disability.  That is the kind of doctor employers pick now to fight worker’s compensation cases, so there is no reason to think they will change.

          Representative Spiros’ bill makes several other changes, including doing away with minimum required permanent disability ratings in many cases, allowing employers to pay nothing if the injured worker had made a false representation in his or her application, and in other ways reduces both benefits to the injured workers and payment for medical expense.

          The worst thing the Spiros bill does is throw out the one thing that has made Wisconsin’s law so respected and admired – the Worker’s Compensation Advisory Council.  The Spiros bill makes worker’s compensation just another political football, with radical changes being made, not on what is reasonable and agreed to by all parties, but rather on who holds the political power.

          The whole idea of worker’s compensation was to eliminate the notion of fault and to insure that injured workers were properly treated and reasonably compensated for their injuries.  The Spiros bill cuts that reasonable compensation and brings fault back in the picture.  It will force workers to get a lawyer in almost every case, and so employers will have to do the same.  Everyone will lose.  Worker’s compensation will cost more and pay less.

          The people of Wisconsin deserve far better than this.  They deserve what they have – the best system in the nation.  Call your representatives and tell them that.