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Workers' CompensationI. INTRODUCTIONWorkers' Compensation Acts exist in all 50 states. In addition, there are several Federal Workers' Compensation Acts that cover a wide variety of federally and privately employed employees. Some examples of the Federal Acts are the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Acts (LHWCA), the Federal Employees Compensation Act (FECA), the Federal Employees Liability Act (FELA), the Jones Act and the Black Lung Act. Almost all of the workers' compensation systems in the United States share several common features. First and foremost are that these systems are conceived of as "no fault". This means that an injured worker should be able to obtain compensation for his or her work-related injuries without regard to who caused the accident. So, if the worker caused the accident, or a co-worker, or the employer, compensation benefits should still be extended to the injured party. The benefits that are provided under most workers' compensation systems are also very similar in nature. The four common areas of benefits are: wage replacement, medical benefits, permanent disability, and vocational rehabilitation. 1. Lost Wages.When a workers' injuries are severe enough to keep him or her off work, he's generally entitled to payment for "lost wages". The terms "temporary total disability"; "lost wages"; and "workers' comp payments" all generally mean the same thing. Most systems provide for payment of two-thirds of the workers gross wages. So, where a worker was making $300.00 per week at the time of his injury, he will receive $200.00 per week in temporary total disability (TTD) benefits. These benefits are generally paid every two weeks, and are not taxable. 2. Medical Care.Medical Care is generally provided on workers' compensation benefits without any "deductible". Medical care is often times the best aspect of workers' compensation coverage. Generally, the claimant can choose his or her physician. However, due to the advent of Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) the injured workers ability to choose a doctor has been somewhat limited. Payment to the injured worker for mileage to and from the doctors office exists in most workers' compensation systems. "Medical mileage" is generally considered to be a medical benefit. 3. Permanent Disability.If the injured worker suffers permanent disability as a result of his or her injury, he or she will often be able to recover a permanent disability payment. Generally, a determination of "permanent" disability will not be made until the injured worker is considered to be "medically stationary" or "medically stable". "Medically stable" generally means that no further improvement can be expected with medical treatment or the passage of time. Depending on the nature of the injury, a permanent disability award will either be "scheduled" or "unscheduled". An injury that occurs to the limbs, or the eyes or ears will generally constitute a "scheduled" injury. This generally means that a fixed amount will be paid out for the injury according to a schedule. This fixed amount will be paid out without regard to the injured workers loss of earning capacity. An "unscheduled" disability will be awarded for injury to any other part of the body that is not on the schedule. Most often this includes injury to the back, neck, brain or any other internal organs. The unscheduled award means that payments will be made based upon the claimant's loss of earning capacity. 4. Vocational Rehabilitation.Generally, if an injured worker cannot return to his or her job at injury, and they have a permanent disability, they will be entitled to vocational rehabilitation assistance. The level of this assistance varies greatly between jurisdictions. The level of assistance ranges from simple help with the drafting of a resumé all the way through full payment of time loss while the person gets two years of training. II. LAWS.A.State of Oregon.The State of Oregon Workers' Compensation Act can be found at Oregon Revised Statutes, Chapter 656. The law covers almost all workers employed publicly or privately in the State of Oregon. The primary reporter service for workers' compensation Board decisions is the Van Natta's Workers' Compensation Reporter, which is located at 1017 Parkway Drive, NW, Salem, Oregon 97304. The phone number is (503) 585-5173; fax number (503) 540-0114. B.Longshore & Harbor Workers' Compensation Act (LHWCA).The Longshore & Harbor Workers' Compensation Act can be found at 33 USC §901 et. seq. This Act is designed to provide compensation for disability or death which results from injury to employees in certain maritime employment. This Act generally covers those employees who load and off-load ocean going vessels, and those workers who provide a variety of ship repair duties, including those who work on the dry docks and those who work in the shops directly adjacent to a ship repair facility. The primary reporter service is the Benefits Review Board Service: Longshore Reporter. The Longshore Act is administered by the Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP). Office of Workers' Compensation Program * Employment Standards Administration * Longshore & Harbor Workers' Compensation Program * 1111 3rd Avenue, Suite 620 * Seattle, WA 98101-3212 VI. FEDERAL EMPLOYEES COMPENSATON ACT (FECA). 5 U.S.C.§§ 7902, 8101 et seq.; 8144 et seq.; 18 §§ 292, 1920 et seq.The FECA is also administered by the OWCP, which provides resources and information about claims. VII. FEDERAL EMPLOYEES LIABILITY ACT (FELA). 45 U.S.C. § 51 et seq.VIII. THE JONES ACT 46 U.S.C. § 688The following information is from the June 1997 issue of Sidebar, a magazine for lawyers. If you are injured on-the-job or have some other employment health or safety issue, the Department of Labor has put together a page for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) at: http://www.osha.gov From this site, you have access to myriad resources, including relevant statutes, regulations, standards, and interpretation memos and letters, all of which are fully word searchable. One feature is OSHA's Establishment Search page (http://www.osha.gov/oshstats/est1.shtml). From this page, you can enter the name of any company and access all OSHA site visit reports from 1973 to the present. These reports list all OSHA violations by standard number, including all injuries and fatalities. General statistics and data on work-related accidents can also be accessed (http://www.osha.gov/oshstats/). OSHA's standard interpretations and compliance letters can be accessed through their database (http://www.osha-slc.gov/OshDoc/ toc_interps.html), which is fully word searchable, or by standard number (http://www.oshaslc.gov/OshDoc/Interp_toc/erp_toc_by_std_ 0001.html), if you already know the number of the standard in which you are interested. OSHA also has a portion of its site divided into subject matter. The index is located at http://www.osha-slc.gov/SLTC/contents.html if you are interested in general construction, commercial diving or health care-related issues (just to name a few), you can see what OSHA has collected on these subjects, as well as find links to other sites on the Internet on these subjects.
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