News

Standardized benefits paid to injured workers from 2015 to 2019 have continued to drop, in line with a 10-year trend, according to a study released Thursday by the National Academy of Social Insurance. In studying data on coverage of the U.S. labor force, the cost of that coverage, and benefits paid to workers at both the national level and across…

Federal workplace safety officials say a Bloomingdale, Illinois, nursing facility failed to protect employees and temporary staff from possible coronavirus hazards a year after an employee died of the disease. OSHA initiated a follow-up inspection at West Suburban Nursing and Rehabilitation Center LLC on July 28, 2021, under the National Emphasis Program for Coronavirus Disease 2019 and the Emergency Temporary…

For the sixth time in seven years, a federal workplace inspection has found a Roselle, Illinois, construction contractor putting workers at risk of serious injury or death by defying federal requirements to ensure the use of fall protection. On April 16, 2021, U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors observed employees of Emerald Inc. without fall protection…

A federal agency has recommended that Tootsie Roll Industries pay more than $136,000 in fines after a machine at its Chicago plant cut off part of an employee’s finger earlier this year. In a news release, the U.S. Department of Labor said that its Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued one willful violation “for inadequate machine guarding” and proposed…

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s “diminished” enforcement of its 2016 Occupational Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica rule has left “more workers at risk for exposure to silica,” according to a U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General Audit report released Thursday. The rule was created after 18 years of rulemaking to reduce and eliminate worker exposure to respirable…

The U.S. Office of Inspector General reported that the COVID-19 pandemic delayed adjudication of federal workers compensation claims and that changes to the federal opioid management rules did not increase use of narcotic painkillers. The Office of Workers’ Compensation Program received 2,866 claims for COVID-19 in the first five months following the declaration of a national public health emergency, OIG…

A former Beverly Farm Foundation employee claims she was fired in retaliation for filing a workers' compensation claim after her finger became stuck in a wheelchair. Janine Pittman filed a complaint Sept. 13 in the Madison County Circuit Court against Beverly Farm Foundation, also known as Beverly Farm Association, alleging retaliatory discharge. According to the complaint, Pittman worked for Beverly…

A majority of the 20 largest U.S. workers compensation underwriters saw their direct premiums earned increase year over year in the second quarter, with Markel Corp. recording the biggest growth at 46.3%, according to an S&P Global Market Intelligence analysis released on Thursday. Direct premiums earned for the entire workers comp industry amounted to $12.4 billion, up from $11.8 billion…

The Biden administration cited climate change as a driver behind its planned crackdown on heat-related illness and deaths among workers, but other factors likely also have contributed. Concerns over restrictions placed on federal safety officials under the Trump administration and the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic were likely also an impetus for the move, experts say. The Biden administration…