Republican North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx wrote to Department of Labor (DOL) Acting Secretary Julie Su Monday to ensure the agency continues to perform casework during the remainder of President Joe Biden’s lame duck term.
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Connecticut businesses will pay less for workers’ compensation insurance next year, with the state again reducing premiums paid by private employers, which regulators say reflects an ongoing decline in claims.
The Connecticut Insurance Department has approved an annual workers’ compensation rate filing for 2024 with a decrease of 9.8% in voluntary market loss costs and a decrease of 10.5% in assigned risk plan rates.
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A decrease in workers’ compensation rates is continuing in Connecticut for a ninth straight year.
Beginning Jan. 1, workers’ compensation rates will fall by 3%, Gov. Ned Lamont said, as the Connecticut Insurance Department approved the filing for pure premium loss costs. However, those companies who have an assigned risk will not see a reduction.
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The Arizona-based Goldwater Institute (GI) is preparing another fight in court against a practice called “release time” to protect non-union government workers from having their compensation used to fund union activities.
“The City of Phoenix should not force its employees to forfeit their constitutional rights by funding the political speech of government labor unions as a condition of employment. We’re urging the court to end this unlawful cronyism and respect Arizona law,” said GI Vice-President for Litigation, Jon Riches, in a statement emailed to the Arizona Sun Times.
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Workers’ compensation injuries taking place at home would look more like injuries suffered in an office if a bill passed recently by the Ohio House eventually becomes law.
House Bill 447 would eliminate at-home injuries suffered by employees working from that were not a direct result of a typical work. State law does not currently differentiate injuries from injuries sustained by work-from-home employees that are outside of the employer’s control.
“The pandemic changed our lives dramatically,” Rep. Brian Lampton, R-Beavercreek, said. “With that change, legislators should act to modify laws that reflect the world we live in today. House Bill 447 codifies that injuries sustained by work-from-home employees qualify for workers’ compensation if the injury was caused by their employment and within the control of their employer.”
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Private businesses in Ohio would save nearly $106 million over the next fiscal year if a proposal to cut the state’s workers’ compensation premiums by 10% is approved.
The reduction would follow a 10% rate reduction for public employers – counties, cities, schools and others – that went into effect Jan. 1. If approved at the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) board meeting Feb. 25, it would be effective July 1.
“At the request of Gov. [Mike] DeWine, we are proposing a new rate reduction for private employers,” BWC Administrator and CEO Stephanie McCloud said. “This proposed rate reduction confirms the dedication and hard work Ohio’s private employers have towards workplace safety.”
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For the eighth consecutive year, Connecticut’s worker’s compensation insurance rates are dropping, Gov. Ned Lamont said.
The governor announced in a news release that businesses will see a rate decrease in 2022 as the state’s Insurance Department has approved a filing featuring a 14.1% reduction to pure premium loss costs and an 8.2% reduction in risk rates.
“This further decline in workers’ compensation insurance premiums is good news for businesses, enabling employers to invest more money back into their companies and employees, and providing a boost to our economy,” Lamont said. “It’s even better news for workers, because the decrease reflects the fact that workplaces are getting safer and safer.”
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Staff at the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance (TDCI) announced Tuesday that, in 2022, workers’ compensation insurance premiums are likely to decline for most Tennessee businesses for the ninth consecutive year.
TDCI officials, in a press release, attribute the savings to workers comp reforms that the state enacted in the previous decade.
“Since Tennessee’s workers’ compensation system reforms began in 2014, loss cost reductions of over 59 percent have been approved, representing substantial savings for Tennessee employers,” according to the TDCI press release.
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by Todd DeFeo Emergency personnel in Ohio who suffer work-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) could soon be eligible to file a workers’ compensation claim even if they do not experience an accompanying physical injury. Current law prohibits workers’ compensation claims for psychological conditions without an underlying physical condition. However, state lawmakers are considering the change as part of House Bill 80, which creates the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) budget. The state is looking to fund the BWC to the tune of $319.8 million for Fiscal Year 2020 and $324.8 million Fiscal Year 2021. That represents a significant increase from the estimated $304 million BWC will receive in the 2019 fiscal year and the nearly $264 million it saw in 2018. The County Commissioners Association of Ohio and the Ohio Chamber of Commerce expressed concern about the PTSD provision. “Ohio has always required that an employee have a physical harm or injury in order to participate in workers’ compensation,” Kevin Shimp, director of labor and legal affairs for the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, told members of the House Finance Committee. “The so-called ‘mental-mental’ claim – a psychological condition that arises solely from the stress – has never been compensated in Ohio. This exclusion was originally a…
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