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 Important News about Upcoming Legislation |
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04/25/2005 06:48PM
Contributed by: staff
Views: 808
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Dear client:
Please be advised that the North Carolina Senate and the North Carolina House of Representatives are currently proposing new legislation that will have a devastating impact on workersí rights in North Carolina. Senator David Hoyle filed Senate Bill 984 in March 2005, and members of the North Carolina House of Representatives are preparing to introduce an identical bill in the near future.
The goal of these bills is to allow employers and their insurance companies to increase their profits on workersí compensation insurance premiums by dramatically reducing benefits to injured workers.
Everything about these bills will negatively affect injured workers. Here are some of the most troubling parts of the bills:
1. Workersí compensation benefits for totally disabled workers receiving partial benefits will be cut off after just 500 weeks. Under the current law, an injured worker receives wage replacement for the full duration of his or her disability.
2. Permanently and totally disabled workers will lose all workersí compensation benefits at age 65. Under the current law, permanently and totally disabled workers receive workers compensation benefits for life. These new bills would mean that an injured worker would lose his or her benefits at age 65 even if he or she had no Social Security or retirement income.
3. If an injured worker is able to return to workññmeaning any job, anywhereñhe or she automatically loses all workersí compensation benefits, regardless of how little the replacement job pays. This means that someone who made $16.00 per hour when he or she was injured would be forced to take a job paying $8.00 per hour if one is available. Under the current law, an injured worker is only required to take a job that has pay comparable to what he or she was making when he or she was injured.
4. Employers who admit that an injured worker is entitled to workersí compensation benefits can delay any compensation for more than three (3) months. Under the current law, such employers are required to begin payments within fourteen (14) days.
5. Injured workers lose all rights to private communication with their doctors and waive all patient-physician privilege. Under the current law, employers have access to all relevant medical records, but the injured worker can still talk privately about questions or concerns with his or her doctor.
These are just some examples of the ways that these proposed bills will take away the rights of injured workers. While an injury is already hard for a worker and his or her family to deal with under the current system, these proposed changes may cause workers to become homeless and destitute, living off Welfare, Medicaid, Medicare and food stampsÖ all because benefits ran out after an arbitrary length of time.
Please think about you workersí compensation claim and how this legislation will negatively affect your family and friends. These bills serve no purpose other than to line the pockets of businesses and insurance companies that put their own profits ahead of fairly compensating injured workers.
Call your Senator today and tell him or her that you are a constituent and that you are an injured worker (or formerly injured worker) who is closely monitoring the vote on SB 984, and that YOU WANT THE SENATOR TO VOTE NO ON THIS BILL.
Below is a list of the Senators on the Senate Commerce Committee. Call some or all of these Senators prior to May 3, 2005, when they will vote on Senate Bill 984.
1. Senator William Purcell (Anson, Richmond, Scotland, Stanly) (919) 733-5953
2. Senator Eddie Goodall (Union, Mecklenburg) (919) 733-7659
3. Senator R.C. Soles, Jr. (Chairman) (919) 733-5963
4. Senator David W. Hoyle (Vice Chairman) (919) 733-5734
5. Senator Tony Rand (Vice Chairman) (919) 733-9892
6. Senator Philip E. Berger (Ranking Minority Member) (919) 733-5708
Tell your friends and family what is happening in the North Carolina legislature. Even if these are not your Senators, these are the people we all need to contact to protect workersí rights.
Please know that we will be meeting with our Senators and Representatives in addition to calling and writing these members. It is vital that everyone uses his or her voice to let our government know that injured workers have important rights that need to be protected.
North Carolina has a stable workersí compensation system with low premiums for employers and fair benefits for injured workers. Workersí compensation insurance premiums are down more than twenty-seven percent (27 %) over the last decade, and industry groups have consistently ranked North Carolina as having some of the lowest workersí compensation premiums and most attractive sites to locate businesses.
Your benefits are in jeopardyótell these Senators your story and let them know that injured workers need and deserve fair benefits. If we do not act soon, workers injured in North Carolina will face a bleak future with little to no benefits and very few rights.
With kind regards, we both remain
Very truly yours,
Frederick D. Poisson, Jr.
E. Stewart Poisson
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