Public Employee Press
DC 37 News
Union efforts help blunt workers’ compensation changes
BY MIKE LEE
The union helped block special interests from gutting New York State’s workers’ compensation regulations.
DC 37 joined a campaign against the proposed changes shortly after the state Workers Compensation Board presented them on Sept. 1.
The proposal dealt with medical treatment guidelines and several long-standing regulations.
The changes would have eliminated monetary awards for dozens of arm and leg injuries. New medical treatment guidelines would have denied benefits and care to workers injured on the job who fail to answer all the questions posed by an employer’s medical examiner.
DC 37 was part of a vigorous campaign by a coalition, which included other statewide labor unions and workers advocacy groups.
The campaign included letter-writing, a petition that drew thousands of signatures, media pressure and intensive lobbying efforts in Albany.
These efforts forced the board to rewrite the proposed regulations and drop the worst changes.
The eliminated draft regulations included new requirements for injured workers to prove loss of income, diminished strength and pain; limits on the right of workers to present evidence and seek their own medical exam; regulations to make it tougher for workers hurt on the job to collect awards, as well as other egregious changes to procedures and benefits that had been in place for decades.
The revised proposals were approved in late December.
“These new guidelines eliminate the uncertainty that our members faced in future on-the-job injuries,” said DC 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido.
“Due to our opposition, in the end, the Workers’ Compensation Board wisely stayed with many of the established guidelines,” he said.
