In Jefferson City, MO the state legislators issued the final approval that would expand the type of ailments covered by the state workers’ compensation system. This is a move intended to make the state more attractive to businesses by lowering their exposure to workers’ compensation related litigation costs. The suggested legislation would: Include occupational diseases under the umbrella of the workers’ compensation program and keep those claims from being taken to court. Limit employee lawsuits against co-workers for injuries sustained on the job to instance in which the3 injury was “purposefully and dangerously” caused. The House passed the measure 87-68. Now, Governor Jay Nixon will decide about signing it into law. His decision is still unclear. A Nixon spokesman indicated that some of the governor’s concerns include the provisions of the bill that deal with occupational diseases. Occupational diseases, such as those caused by on-the-job exposure to toxins and che ...

A new study by The Workers’ Compensation Policy Institute indicates New York employers are being held to the largest workers’ compensation assessment surcharge in the country. The assessment surcharge is basically a tax on workers’ compensation premiums and is used by state governments to fund the workers’ compensation system. States may select from a variety of funding options for their workers’ compensation program, but the most popular method used if the assessment surcharge on workers’ compensation fees paid by employers. Employers in New York state are held to an assessment surcharge of 20.2%, more than twice the second most expensive state, Minnesota at 8.9%. In the 32 states that impose a surcharge, the national average assessment level is 4.2%, less than one-fifth the New York level. New York’s assessment rose 10.4% and then 27.5% in the most recent yearly increase. Workers’ Comp Surcharge Cost Burden to N.Y. Employers: Study The assessment surch ...

In a study performed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity among U.S. adults and children was steady in 2009-2010 compared with 2007-2008. It indicated 37.5% of adults were obese, which increases the risk of other conditions arising in them, such as diabetes, stroke, coronary heart disease and cancer. These co-morbid conditions create in increasing burden on the workers’ compensation system where employees go when suffering on-the-job injuries. Delays in returning to full health When obese employees in physically active roles cannot return to full duty while recovering from an injury, sometimes the employees gain weight during the lower activity level timeframe, which can cause delays in recovery in injuries affecting ankles, knees and the back. Obesity Problems Weigh on Workers' Comp Not only are obese workers comp claimants likely to miss more work days than healthy-weight co-workers with similar injuries, obese workers are likely to have higher medical costs and are mor ...

The Journal of Applied Social Psychology will soon release a study that focused on how reviewing a candidate’s Facebook profile may predict new employee success. The study indicates that as little as a 10-minute review of a Facebook page can yield: Hiring red flags Clues to the candidate’s personality outside of the application process In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Donald Kluemper, a management professor at Northern Illinois University and one of the lead researchers on the study, said that businesses have a history of utilizing personality and IQ tests to get an indication of how a candidate may perform in a new role. With increasing use of online sources for screening applicants, Kluemper and his team set out to establish how much reliable data can be gleaned from online sources, especially social networking sites. "Hiring specialists were just trying to eliminate someone who was doing something inappropriate," Kluemper said. "What we did is try to assess the personal ...

As summer approaches, businesses begin asking about summer interns and whether to pay them or not. The best answer will come from your HR resources, whether it’s your internal team, or your HR outsource. They should be savvy to the latest legislation in your state and the local requirements to utilize un-paid interns. Typically, you can have an unpaid internship only if an employment relationship does not exist between your intern and your company. If all of the following is present in the relationship, then you probably have an intern, not an employee. The internship is similar to training that would be given in an educational environment. The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern; The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff; The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern, and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded; The intern is n ...