Missouri House Passes Tougher Workers' Compensation Standard By Robert Sandler, Associated Press Writer - May 7, 2004Jefferson, MO. (AP)--Some people hurt on the job could find it harder to get workers' compensation benefits under legislation approved Thursday by the House.
Republicans have pushed hard for a tighter worker’s compensation standard since gaining control of the Legislature last year. The House approved a similar bill last year, but the Senate never acted on it.
The measure approved by the House Thursday would allow an employee to be compensated for an injury only if work were the “prevailing” factor in causing it, rather than simply “a substantial” factor as current law requires.
“The current system has evolved to such a point that employers and employees are at odds with each other,” said Rep. Kevin Wilson, R-Neosho, the bill’s sponsor.
House members voted 85-69 to send the bill back to the Senate, which has passed a version that would simply have banned elected officials from receiving unemployment benefits. If senators do not accept the changes made by the House, negotiators from the two chambers likely would be appointed to reach a compromise.
The House version would specifically prohibit businesses from being assessed for claims of “pain or other subjective complaints alone, in the absence of objective relevant medical findings.”
People injured while traveling to or from work or while riding in company-owned or subsidized vehicles would not receive compensation.
The legislation also requires medical evidence of injuries to be objective and relevant—able to verified and reproduce by more than one doctor.
Rep. Steve Hunter successfully sponsored amendment that could imprison workers for up to a year for staging workplace accidents so they can get their employers to pay medical cost. Hunter, R-Joplin, said the move was needed to discourage people who are already injured from coming to a workplace so that they can fake an accident and then get free medical coverage. |