Business groups in Ohio are pushing lawmakers to enact reforms to the state insurance fund for injured workers that were agreed upon before a scandal broke over the fund’s investments, according to a recent account by the Associated Press.
The scandal involved the removal of the agency’s longtime administrator, an overhaul of the agency’s investment policy and indirectly to the conviction of Ohio Gov. Bob Taft on ethics charges related to gifts he did not report as required under state law.
The Ohio Chamber of Commerce, the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants and the state chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business were among the business groups scheduled to meet with Republican lawmakers Wednesday about the bill. The Ohio Farm Bureau and the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association also plan to meet with House and Senate GOP lawmakers who pushed the original reforms.
In June of 2005 a reform package was passed by Senate, just as the scandal including $300 million in investment losses heated up.
In response, lawmakers expanded the agency’s oversight committee to include investment experts as part of the state budget approved last summer. Other bills aimed at the investment policies are working their way through the Legislature.
The bill business groups are pushing would reduce the period that workers can file claims for wages lost from on-the-job injuries and claims for medical payments. The legislation would also eliminate some payments for loss of limb. For instance, a worker who loses a leg can also file a claim for loss of a foot. The bill would count both as one limb.
Labor groups and attorneys representing injured workers had decided not to challenge the original bill, but now say it shouldn’t go anywhere until the scandal is resolved.
The Ohio Trial Attorneys have said that the agency needs to improve, based the scandel charges. Rep. Stephen Buehrer, sponsor of the legislation, countered that the bill he is sponsoring is “about benefits, not investments.”
Source: Bureau of Workers’ Compensation
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