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Doctors told Steve Dillman the throat cancer he was diagnosed with in 2008 came from smoking. He knew it didn't. "I thought it had to be job-related because I've never smoked a day in my life. I don't chew. I don't drink excessively ... and that's the three main criterias," he says. But Dillman did spend 38 years as an…

A Madison man is suing a freight car company, alleging retaliation and wrongful termination. Don L. Garrett filed a complaint Dec. 19 in Madison County Circuit Court against Amsted Rail Company Inc., alleging the defendant willfully and wantonly disregarded the plaintiff's rights. According to the complaint, on March 2, Garrett was terminated from his employment. The suit says Garrett has…

All 14 candidates for Chicago mayor agree that the embattled head of the city's workers' compensation program should step aside or that the program should be managed by a separate city agency. The Chicago Sun-Times asked the candidates if longtime Alderman Ed Burke, who as head of the City Council's Finance Committee oversees the comp program, should step down from that…

AmTrust Financial Services has released a new report that finds that injured restaurant workers miss an average of 30 days of work. The AmTrust Restaurant Risk Report is based on more than 84,006 claims AmTrust collected from restaurant clients between 2013 and 2017. Highlights of the report include: Cuts, punctures and/or scrapes account for a third of all restaurant claims…

Progressive aldermen moved Wednesday to strip the Finance Committee chaired by Ald. Edward Burke (14th) of control over Chicago’s $100 million-a-year worker’s compensation program. The move by Ald. John Arena (45th) and his Progressive Caucus colleagues comes nearly two weeks after the unprecedented federal raid on Burke’s ward and City Hall offices. Sources have told the Chicago Sun-Times that the…

A woman whose finger was severed in an accident at an Elkhart County assembly plant must seek relief via the Indiana Worker’s Compensation Act after the Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of her negligence complaint against the company she worked for at the time of the injury. In Eshanya Walls v. Markley Enterprises, Inc., 18A-CT-266, temporary staffing agency…

In the span of less than a decade, the costs paid by Illinois employers for workers’ compensation insurance dropped from third highest in the nation, as compared to other states, to 22nd on the list. That steep decline in relative workers’ comp premiums tracked with the implementation of a 2011 state law passed at the urging of the state’s business…