Workers’ comp reform remains elusive

For employers and others anticipating reform of New York’s workers’ compensation system and the so-called scaffold law, the wait likely will stretch well past January when the new governor takes office.

At mid-year - the end of the state legislative session before summer break - there was some activity but not enough to force changes in the two areas of coverage which have saddled New York’s employers with burdensome costs and forced some out of business or out of the state. A hot button is the proposed 10-year cap on payments to people with permanent partial disabilities. Currently, payments go on indefinitely at significant cost.

The reforms would be the first since 1996, when the workers’ comp costs were reduced by 25 percent, on average. Despite the cuts, the system has the nation’s second highest cost for businesses and pays out some of the lowest weekly benefits to injured workers. Additional reforms to the workers’ compensation system were introduced by Pataki, but not passed, in 2004.

Sections 240 and 241 of the state’s Labor Law, known as the scaffold law, makes owners, contractors and subcontractors liable for work-site injuries. The law was passed in the late 1800s, primarily to protect immigrant workers building skyscrapers in Manhattan. Plaintiffs’ attorneys support it for the protections it extends to workers of unscrupulous employers. But critics say the law’s absolute liability - the employer takes the blame even if it was the worker who was at fault - is prompting high insurance prices and lost jobs.

“The governor made it part of the budget but the Legislature ignored it. That would be a great starting point. If the legislation passes, it would reduce costs by 15 percent almost immediately. We recognize the reality of it, the negotiation and the compromise,” said Steven Greenberg, spokesman. “We need a real movement. There has to be, or we’ll keep hemorrhaging jobs in New York state.”

Rest here..

Just another one of the many, many things that the legislators in Albany refuse to debate, refuse to bring under control to help the businesses in this state.

Delphi is just one business how many others face the exact same thing. But to help save Delphi the governor had to step in. Why is it that Sheldon Silver and the assembly refuse to bring this to the floor?

Follow the money….