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March 2007 — Vol. 85, No. 2

CAPITOL REPORTER

Cost-raising workers’ comp bills again proposed in Labor Committee

 

As in previous years, the legislature’s Labor Committee has once again proposed many bills that will increase employers’ workers’ compensation costs.

The bills will either increase worker benefits beyond fiscally responsible levels, harshly penalize employers and workers’ comp benefit payers for delays in the payment and hearing process, or require employers to take on additional administrative burdens in responding to workers’ comp claims.

Two of the proposals will repeal landmark workers’ comp reforms concerning scarring and disfigurement benefits and discretionary benefits. These two types of benefits were reformed in the early 1990s to bring Connecticut’s workers’ compensation costs more in line with those of other, often competing states.

CBIA has testified in opposition to these bills and also alerted members to them. As a result, CBIA members and others from the business community sent more than 2,400 e-mail messages and letters to legislators in opposition to the proposals.

Few current legislators know much about the state’s workers’ compensation system or how much the reforms have helped control employers’ workplace and labor costs. CBIA will continue working to educate legislators to ensure that these bipartisan reforms remain in place.

For more information about maintaining the integrity of the workers’ comp system, send e-mail to Kia Floyd or call her at 860-244-1931.