FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Tuesday, February 17, 2009

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

Sacramento, CA - Injured workers’ advocates today said a recent Workers Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) decision allowing injured workers to challenge the administration’s permanent disability rating schedule is a necessary clarification of the 2004 statutory changes, but doesn't address the critical problem that California is at the bottom of US states in compensating permanent disability insurance claims from on-the-job injuries. Todd McFarren, president of CAAA, whose members represent workers injured on the job, said the board’s recent decision in the combined Almaraz/Guzman cases “allows judges to fairly assess injured workers’ actual permanent disabilities and lost wages, because it allows the court to look at all the factors of disability.” Judges, however, will “still be handcuffed by the administration’s inadequate permanent disability schedule,” McFarren said. “The administration has not addressed the fundamental flaws in its disability rating schedule. We’ve been waiting more than a year for the governor to approve his own administration’s proposal to restore a small percentage of the permanent disability compensation he cut by 50% to 70%.”

California remains well below neighboring and comparable US states, in compensating permanently disabled workers. “This decision does not fix the harm done to injured workers. California workers permanently disabled on the job would still receive compensation that is among the lowest in the nation under this decision, even if the minor increase proposed by the governor is finally adopted," said McFarren.

Multiple independent studies, including studies conducted by the California Commission on Health, Welfare and Workers Compensation (CHSWC), have documented fifty to seventy per cent cuts in compensation for permanent disabilities.

The governor has vetoed three bills by Senator Don Perata that would have doubled the number of weeks injured workers receive permanent disability compensation, promising instead a correction via the regulatory process.

“Neither this court decision nor the governor’s proposed minor increase will fix the harm done to injured workers. California workers permanently disabled on the job would still receive compensation that is among the lowest in the nation. The decision and the proposal do not come close to making up the reductions that the administration’s own studies found,” said McFarren, “Injured workers have suffered 50 to 70 percent cuts that were never intended by the legislature. Even the administration’s own studies showed a decrease in the average rating of up to 41%.

To make injured workers wait until at least July, 2009, and likely much longer, is unnecessary and cruel.”