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This is "funnel" week at the Iowa legislature. Any bill that is going to survive and garner full legislative consideration must be passed out of subcommittee this week. Any bill that fails to pass through a subcommittee "dies." I write to urge the death of one bill (HF 329 http://coolice.legis.state.ia.us/Cool-ICE/default.asp?Category=BillInfo&Service=Billbook&ga=82&hbill=HF329) currently under consideration.
The Iowa legislature is currently considering a bill that will affect workers’ and employers’ rights. Specifically, the legislature is considering House File 329. This bill would repeal a statute enacted in the fall of 2004. In 2004, a bipartisan effort was made to draft a new statute that would strike a balance between injured worker’s rights and employer’s rights when an employee sustained multiple injuries with the same employer.
Prior to 2004, the Iowa Supreme Court had held that an employer was liable for the full extent of any disability an employee may have if that disability was caused or aggravated by work activities or an injury at work. While this sounds like it should be a fair statement, many employers complained about how the law was implemented.
Prior to the apportionment legislation in 2004, an employee could be injured at work and receive an award from the Iowa Workers’ Compensation Commissioner, which would represent a 20% loss of future earning capacity. Then, if the employee sustained a second injury and the total disability resulted in a 50% loss of earning capacity, the employee could receive a second award totaling 50%. Then, if the employee sustained yet another injury and was determined to then have a 60% total disability, the employee would receive a 60% award.
Under the above scenario, an injured employee who sustained three work injuries with the same employer ended up losing 60% of their future earning capacity. Yet, as the law was implemented, the injured worker received awards totaling 130%. Employers cried “foul” for many years. In 2004, a movement was pushed to change this situation. A bipartisan deliberation ensued and a new apportionment statute was enacted.
Under the 2004 statute, an employee that continued to work for the same employer with static or increasing wages that sustained the same three injuries described above would receive a 20% award for the first injury, receive the incremental increase in disability of 30% for the second injury and the incremental increase in disability of 10% for the third injury. In total, the statute would permit the employee to recover the full 60% loss of earning capacity without a “double-recovery.” The statute encouraged an employer to maintain an employee’s wages into the future with a mechanism that would reduce the “credit” for subsequent injuries and increase the future awards if the employee’s wages decreased. Accordingly, employees maintained living wages, maintained their jobs, but employer’s were only paying for their employee’s injuries once rather than paying multiple times for the disability caused by the initial injury.
Now, legislation introduced by Democrats in the Iowa House of Representatives would repeal the 2004 statute. While I am typically not politically active, this seems to be a shear exercise in brute power by the Democrats having seized control of the legislature and governor’s mansion this past fall. I would urge legislators to refrain from such quick repeal of the 2004 legislation. In fact, we have not yet had sufficient time to see that statute in action or to obtain any court interpretation of that statute to know whether it is “fair” to both employers and employees.
I am all for fairly compensating injured employees. In fact, the very purpose of the work comp system is to ensure fair and adequate compensation of employees. However, repeal of bipartisan legislation enacted only 2 ½ years ago seems to be nothing more than use of sheer and brute political power. I will not condone similar actions by a Republican controlled Iowa government in the future and believe the current bill to be an ill-advised political stunt that will increase worker’s compensation premiums for all employers in Iowa and will ultimately likely result in retaliatory legislation once the Republicans gain office.
Our legislators ought not be manipulating our worker’s compensation system through sheer brute political force. This is a system that has been operating since 1914 for the benefit of employees. Too much “tinkering” with this tried and true system will only damage the system and turn the issue of compensating injured workers into an unnecessary political brawl.
Efforts to manipulate the system could result in current employers leaving our state, new employers refusing to relocate to our state, and certainly will result in inflationary pressure on our economy as increased insurance premiums are passed along to customers. Have we already forgotten that we have lost Maytag, Bluebird and a few other major employers around our state? Why should employers remain in our state if their concerns are addressed in this manner by our state government and if employer’s efforts at bipartisan legislation only 2 ½ years ago are simply thrown to the wolves as soon as a new political party takes over legislative control?
In the interests of keeping the worker’s compensation system from becoming a sheer political struggle, and to prevent employees and employers from being whipsawed back and forth every time the political majority changes, I implore state legislators to defeat House File 329 regarding apportionment of worker’s compensation benefits.
Posted by William H. Grell on March 6, 2007 12:55 PM
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