Democrats Press For Quick Fix For Disabled Worker Benefits
By Steve Lawrence, Associated Press Writer - March 23, 2006SACRAMENTO (AP) _ Democratic lawmakers and labor representatives on Wednesday pressed for quick changes to regulations that a state study says have cut benefits for permanently disabled workers by more than half.
But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's workers' compensation director said she needed updated information about the affect of the regulations on workers' wages before considering amendments.
"We want to do the right thing at the right time for the right reason," Carrie Nevans, acting director of the Division of Workers Compensation, told the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee.
The committee's hearing focused on regulations written to implement part of a sweeping workers' compensation system overhaul Schwarzenegger pushed through the Legislature in 2004 to ease skyrocketing insurance costs for employers.
Supporters said the regulations were intended to bring more objectivity, uniformity and fewer disputes to the system used to rate the severity of work-related disabilities and determine the compensation for those injuries.
Schwarzenegger said that could be done without cutting benefits to truly injured workers.
But a study issued last month by the California Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation, a panel of employer and labor representatives, concluded the regulations had slashed benefits by more than 50 percent.
That has increased pressure for changes to the regulations from Democratic lawmakers, labor leaders and workers' attorneys.
"When are we going to say yes to restoring some humanity to this system?" asked Angie Wei, a lobbyist for the California Labor Federation.
Lachland Taylor, a workers comp judge representing the commission, said the study reviewed about 7,000 disability cases since the regulations took effect on Jan. 1, 2005 and found the average benefit level had dropped 55 percent.
He said the report's conclusions were accurate enough to begin re-evaluating the regulations now.
"I would not expect significant changes (in the report's findings) if we collected the data for another year," he told the committee. "That's the most important point we could make perhaps."
Robert Jackson, a former Fremont auto worker, said his permanent disability award for the loss of earning power he suffered because of back, hand and elbow injuries was cut from $38,950 to $16,050.
"How am I going to repay my outstanding bills?" he asked, saying he had to borrow money from family members and friends to make up the difference.
Nevans said her office is required to review the regulations beginning July 1, 18 months after they took effect. She said she wanted to compile updated wage-loss figures, particularly the affect of a provision of the 2004 legislation that raises or lowers benefits depending on whether partially disabled workers return to their old jobs.
Asked if she intended to modify the regulations, she said, "It's going to depend on what all the data shows, including some updated wage-loss information. Until the data's done and analyzed it's difficult for me to say."
"How long do we wait for that data?" asked Sen. Joe Dunn, D-Garden Grove. "We've got an injured worker community saying this is seriously wrong. We're not dealing with the health of injured workers."
Nevans said she has already started collecting information about wage losses from the 12-month period ending this June 30.
But worker representatives said there was no need to wait. They said permanent disability benefits were already inadequate before the regulations took effect and that injured workers also suffered other cutbacks in the 2004 legislation.
David Rockwell, president of the California Applicants' Attorneys Association, a group of lawyers who represent injured workers, said Nevans' office should have been collecting the information since the rules took effect.
"Families are being hurt; lives are being lost because of this," he said. | 
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