The Virginian-Pilot
©
NORFOLK
Shipyard workers who suffer serious injuries on the job, such as the loss of a hand or foot, would no longer be able to get coverage through Virginia's workers' compensation program, under legislation being considered by the General Assembly.
If the Senate approves the bill - patroned by Del. Lee Ware, R-Powhatan - 20,000 employees at Newport News Shipbuilding, roughly 1,800 longshoremen at the port of Hampton Roads, workers at private repair shipyards and those at other port facilities across the state would be carved out of Virginia's workers' comp program for any injuries suffered July 1 or later. They would then have to depend solely on protection offered through a federal law.
The House passed the bill, HB153, on Feb. 6 by a vote of 70-26.
The International Longshoremen's Association in the port of Hampton Roads opposes the legislation.
"Why in the world should a Virginia harbor worker be denied benefits that are provided for other Virginia citizens who work in a business across the street from the harbor?" said Deborah C. Waters, general counsel for the longshoremen's union.
Officials at Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc., declined to comment, deferring to an industry trade group.
Arthur W. Moye Jr., executive vice president of the Virginia Maritime Association, which represents more than 400 member organizations employing more than 70,000 workers in port-related jobs, said the primary reason for seeking the legislation was duplication.
Harbor workers are the only employees in the state who can seek workers' compensation coverage under both state and federal programs, he said. Most workers in Virginia are eligible for coverage only under the state program.
"We feel the federal act covers the needs of an injured worker and covers it in a far superior way than the Virginia state act does," Moye said.
Some attorneys familiar with such cases disagreed.
"The bill would drastically cut disability benefits for workers who suffer any permanent injury to an arm, hand, leg or foot, even if the worker suffers a significant economic loss due to job loss, or the inability to do the heavy work they did before," Matthew H. Kraft, a Virginia Beach attorney who handles workers' compensation cases, wrote in an email.
Today, injured maritime workers in Virginia, like those in some other states, are covered under the state's workers' compensation program as well as two federal programs: the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act and the Merchant Marine Act, or Jones Act, which applies only to members of crews of vessels under way.
Under the current arrangement, an injured shipyard worker can file claims under the state and federal longshore-act program, though the laws prohibit "double-dipping."
"There's a lot of things that the state act does that the longshore act doesn't cover," said Stephen Harper, a Richmond attorney and chairman of the workers' comp section of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association.
In the event of a fatal injury, for example, the state program offers the family of the victim a $10,000 funeral benefit plus $1,000 in transportation costs, Harper said.
Under the federal program, the maximum funeral benefit is $3,000.
Under the state and federal plans, Harper said, if a worker suffers a permanent injury, such as a crushed ankle, that prevents him from returning to his old job, he is eligible for compensation for a certain period of time, based on a doctor's evaluation of the degree of impairment.
In most cases, once the payment is made under the federal programs, the insurer's obligation ends. Through the state workers' comp program, however, benefits can last as long as 500 weeks, or 9-1/2 years.
"They're putting the longshore people in a much, much worse situation than the guy working down the street at Walmart," Harper said. "The same injury, the guy down at Walmart may be able to get lost wages because of that ankle fusion for 9-1/2 years, potentially, but under the longshore act it could be a lot less."
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Once again Republican legislation proves beyond the
shadow of a doubt that the party of the 1% hates labor and has nothing to offer working class families.
Shipyard Workers
There is no reason for workers to be covered by both the Virginia Act and the LHWCA. They are designed to cover injuries to employees arising out of and in the course of their employment. The LHWCA is more liberal in terms of its coverage and benefits than the State Act. All that is accomplished is to run up a bill for the employer who must deal with the same matter in both places. Employers would rather an employee was covered by the State Act since there are very few defenses under the LHWCA and the employer has less control over an employee's medical treatment. Unlike the State Act where an employee pays a percentage of his settlement or award to his lawyer, an employee's attorneys' fees are paid by the employer if he wins.
Federal-state maritime workers' comp overlap
HenryB is right--in most cases--that the Longshore Act provides a more adequate remedy than VA comp law; but he's wrong in suggesting that "All that is accomplished" by concurrent VA-law coverage of Longshore-covered cases "is to run up a bill for the employer who must deal with the same matter in both places." In admittedly compensable cases, "deal[ing]" with it under each law requires very little - filing a few one-page forms in each system acknowledging liability and reporting the payments being made. But if the employer denies a Longshore claim, for whatever reason, the Longshore system takes so long to resolve the dispute that the worker loses everything and may not get med care; VA will make an award, albeit often less, much sooner.
The point here is that the
The point here is that the federal act was not intented to take the place of the state act. In some cases the state act provides better coverage and in a state like ours, that ranks near the bottom on workers comp laws, why take away what little workers have? This General Assembly has been attacking workers on all fronts, this bill is only one example of the anti-worker enviroment we have here in the commonwealth.I am all for businesses making a profit and I understand that we all need business to provide jobs, but does it need to be at any cost? It seems to me this state, along with a few others, will not be happy until we are all back in work camps owing everything to a company store.
Cutting eligible resources to those who earned it
The fact the House already passed the bill
proves they're eligible for comp: they're
already brain-dead.
The Republican war on workers
The Republican war on workers continues. It is time to stop the Republican war on the middle class and vote these guys out of office.