California
Workers' Compensation Changes Not Focused on Workers Best
Interests
January 2005
The new law that changes how work
injuries are evaluated, aimed at saving businesses in California
billions of dollars in workers' compensation insurance costs,
has received mixed reviews from business owners, insurance
carriers and Union officials.
The new system changes the factors determining how much
money permanently injured workers receive as compensation
for their injuries and will result in some workers who are
not severely disabled, and still physically able to earn
a living, getting less money for their injuries.
It has been criticized by union officials and labor leaders
and while many California business owners and executives
have expressed their support for the new system, some are
taking a different approach - preventing injury, lowering
absenteeism and keeping their workers healthy and happy.
Frank Dominguez, a supervisor for the Los Angeles County
Assessor's Office Special Investigators Unit, has spent
many years bringing awareness of ergonomics training to
the County and the Union (Local 660) that services Los Angeles
county workers.
After trying various programs Dominguez heard about Future
Industrial Technologies (F.I.T.) and their programs delivered
by healthcare professionals who are trained as injury prevention
specialists.
The BACKSAFE® and SITTINGSAFE® programs are based
on Bionomics TM, a field within ergonomics training that
includes the adjustment of the physical environment and
the body. These bionomic programs have been used in diverse
industries such as aerospace, municipalities, banks, hospitals,
warehouse/trucking firms as well as many small businesses
to substantially reduce workplace injuries and worker compensation
costs.
The results of the program? LA County's worker compensation
costs have been cut dramatically and where there were 19
to 20 claims per year, there are now only one or two.
Mission Linen and Uniform Service of Santa Barbara, CA.,
is another company that has chosen training to reduce worker
compensation costs. Mission Linen launders uniforms and
linens for restaurants, hospitals and other institutional
organizations
They have 50 locations in five western states, and 2700
employees, only 800 of whom are delivery drivers. Yet in
2003 they discovered that their delivery drivers where responsible
for almost half the reported workplace injuries.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, delivery
truck drivers are considered a high incident occupation
for back injuries. The Bureau found that sitting in the
same position while driving may cause as much trouble as
lifting large items once drivers arrive at their next location.
"With our employees spread in small populations all over
the West we needed a tailor made workplace safety and ergonomic
training program that could be implemented site by site,"
says Don Bock, Director of Risk Management at Mission Linen.
"We have used the FIT program to train our delivery drivers
in 15 locations so far and we have yet to experience a back
injury where the training has been implemented. It's cut
our absenteeism to nothing and our insurance costs are way
down."
About Future Industrial
Technologies
FIT offers workplace safety and ergonomics training programs
based on Bionomics. These programs show employees how to
perform their specific job tasks in a manner that is bio-mechanically
correct, increasing workplace safety and reducing injuries
and insurance costs.
|
