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Member, Beacon International Group, Ltd.
It's always worrisome when legislators tinker with work comp law. Sometimes they get it right and sometimes not, which often depends on whether their actions favor your own political beliefs and business objectives.
Regardless of lawmakers' intentions, though, the vast majority of them across the country know very little, if anything, about comp. Many of them would probably call it workman's compensation if you were to engage them in a conversation on the subject.
After introducing bills that would require selling Oklahoma's state comp insurer, some lawmakers there must have learned that doing so is a little more complicated and requires a little more thought than, say, selling a car your family no longer needs.
According to a story available here the Oklahoma lawmakers withdrew their legislation calling for selling CompSource Oklahoma because too many questions emerged about the proposed sale.
It's hard to imagine that lawmakers would propose selling or mutualizing an entity that writes 35% of the comp business in their state without lots of stakeholders raising lots of questions. They didn't see that coming?
The lawmakers are going back to the drawing board.
In South Carolina, meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill titled “Making Workers' Compensation Work Better.”
The legislation would give employers that fail to buy comp coverage a 30-day grace period from penalties. First, the Workers' Compensation Commission must send them a letter telling them they are not in compliance.
But what happens and who pays if an employee is injured during that 30 days? The bill available here doesn't address that.
On another subject, Comp Time praises Jon Coppelman at Lynch Ryan's Workers' Comp Insider weblog for his March 8, piece on AIG. It's a very entertaining read about a former AIG manager and his heavy-handed, “f-bomb” laden management style.