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| | Missouri Governor Vetos Legislation That Would Give Employers Online Database To Check Workers' Compensation Claims
By Lonce LaMon - July 3, 2013
The governor of Missouri, Jay Nixon, vetoed a bill yesterday that would allow an online database that businesses could use to check a prospective employee’s history of workers’ compensation claims.
Governor Nixon cited privacy concerns as his reason for deciding upon a veto. He said that such a database is “an affront to the privacy of our citizens and does not receive my approval.”
This workers’ compensation legislation would have permitted an employer to provide a social security number and a name of a potential hire and receive dates of workers’ compensation claims and the status of any claims being open or closed. The state Division of Workers’ Compensation estimated an online database would initially include 554,000 claim records with about 13,000 records being added every year.
Senator Mike Cunningham sponsored the legislation. He referred to the governor’s office’s practice of making electronic copies of birth certificates and other personal documents obtained from people from their driver’s license applications in criticizing Nixon’s veto.
Nixon in a written statement added there is a “stark contrast” between lawmakers’ action and statements on privacy issues. He said that “invading Missourians’ privacy will not grow our economy or move our state forward.”
Earlier Nixon signed a law that reverses his administration’s six-month-old policy of making electronic copies of personal documents from driver’s license applications. State lawmakers had put together investigatory committees to look into the process. Senator Cunningham said, “I find it interesting that the governor is suddenly interested in privacy when his administration has been breaking the law in the Department of Revenue scandal.”
One of the issues lawmakers have examined in the driver’s license procedures has been whether Nixon’s administration sought to comply with the federal 2005 Real ID Act setting criteria for photo-identification cards to be accepted at airports and federal buildings. Missouri passed a 2009 law barring the state from adopting policies to comply with it because of concerns that the federal government was overreaching. The Revenue Department said its licensing procedures meet or exceed the Real ID Act, but insists the agency implemented them for the state’s own security.
The workers’ compensation database supporters said the legislation could speed the hiring process and help bosses and workers. Senator Cunningham said information about workers’ compensation claims is available by written request and takes about two weeks. He stated the legislation was designed to prevent workers’ compensation abuses and that an electronic database would have brought Missouri into the 21st Century.
But Missouri AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Mike Louis said “Our state elected officials should work to make workplaces safer, not violate privacy rights of hardworking Missourians. The bill would have unfairly given employers online access to personal data of Missouri workers injured on the job.”
The legislation won approval in the Senate 32-0 and in the House 91-67, which is short of the two-thirds majority necessary to override Nixon’s veto and enact the law. Cunningham stated he would engage in discussions with his colleagues before deciding to attempt to override the governor’s veto.
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