TWCC Approves Self-Insure Certificates of Authority for 18 Companies

February 18, 2005

The Texas Workers’ Compensation Commission reported it approved the initial application for a Certificate of Authority to Self-Insure for a one-year period by one private employer and the reapplications for Certificates of Authority to Self-Insure for a one-year period by 17 private employers during a public meeting on Feb. 17.

Texas law allows certain large, private employers to have the option of self-insuring their workers’ compensation liabilities for worker injuries. Each of these employers must have a minimum workers’ compensation manual premium of $500,000 and meet other requirements to be approved as a Certified Self-Insurer in Texas.

The Commission’s Self-Insurance Program is the approved program in Texas that allows larger private employers to self-insure their workers’ compensation liabilities for worker injuries, while retaining the protection of workers’ compensation insurance coverage as provided for by the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act.

Certificates of Authority to Self-Insure were approved by the Commission for the following companies that employ a total of 49,984 workers in Texas. The companies are listed with the city and state of the company headquarters:

·Unique Staff Leasing I, Ltd., Corpus Christi, Texas
·FedEx Freight East, Inc., Harrison, Ark.
·International Paper Company, Memphis, Tenn.
·Lowe’s Home Centers, Inc., Mooresville, N.C.
·Emerson Electric Co., St. Louis, Mo.
·Guardian Industries Corp., Auburn Hills, Mich.
·Watkins Associated Industries, Inc., Lakeland, Fla.
·Valero Energy Corporation, San Antonio, Texas
·Louisiana-Pacific Corporation, Portland, Ore.
·Textron, Inc., Providence, R.I.
·Weyerhaeuser Company, Federal Way, Wash.
·The Procter & Gamble Company, Cincinnati, Ohio
·Ascension Health, St. Louis, Mo.
·Rockwell Collins, Inc., Cedar Rapids, Iowa
·Mount Vernon Mills, Inc., Mauldin, S.C.
·PACCAR Inc, Bellevue, Wash
·Ameron International Corporation, Pasadena, Calif.
·Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., Houston, Texas

For more information on applying to the TWCC Self-Insurance Program, visit the Commission’s Web site at: www.twcc.state.tx.us under “About the Commission.”