FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Contact: Steve Hopcraft, 916/457-5546;
steve@hopcraft.com

Injured workers’ advocates urged Rep. Baca to create first US study of compensation since Nixon era

SACRAMENTO – VotersInjuredatWork.org, a nonprofit California injured workers’ advocacy group, today applauded U.S. Rep. Joe Baca’s (D – California) introduction of legislation (HR 635) to examine the state and nation’s workers compensation system and whether they are providing “adequate, prompt and equitable” compensation to injured workers. “Injured workers welcome this effort to examine the adequacy, promptness and equity of workers compensation systems,” said Jesse Ceniceros, president of VotersInjuredatWork.org. “We encouraged this legislation because we know that injured workers in California can’t live in the state where they were injured on the job. Californians injured at work are losing their cars, their homes and their good credit under the system.”

The last review of the states’ workers compensation laws was in 1972, during the Nixon Administration. The Commission found that the system of state laws was “inequitable and inadequate.” “Permanent disability compensation in California has been cut by more than half,” said Ceniceros. “Vocational rehabilitation has been taken away, temporary disability has been cut off after two years, harming the most seriously injured workers, and medical care is routinely denied and delayed by insurers overruling the recommendations of treating doctors. We welcome the move to examine the states’ workers compensation laws, and call for swift passage of HR 635.”

The measure is here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.635.IH:
Visit VotersInjuredatWork.org at: www.viaw.org

Download the pdf: Final Release HR635.pdf