Latest Workers' Compensation Headlines
All the headlines from our Workers' Compensation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Cal/OSHA Cautioning Employers to Protect Workers From Wildfire Smoke
Sep 25 2024 // Cal/OSHA is urging employers to protect workers from unhealthy air due to wildfire smoke. The Line Fire is impacting air quality in areas around San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Employers are required to monitor air...
Washington Metal Fabricator Faces Felony in $340K Workers’ Comp Scam
Sep 19 2024 // A Washington man who claimed he was too injured to work while operating a metal fabrication shop faces a felony charge in an alleged $340,000 workers’ compensation scam. Travis Lee Johnson, 52, of Spokane Valley,...
OSHA Orders Building Materials Supplier to Reinstate Whistleblower Truck Driver
Sep 19 2024 // A federal whistleblower investigation has found a Virginia subsidiary of one of the world’s largest building materials manufacturers fired a truck driver in September 2023 illegally after the employee raised safety...
Oregon Workers’ Comp Pure Premium Rate to Drop 3.2%
Sep 13 2024 // Oregon employers will pay on average less for workers’ compensation coverage in 2025. The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services the decline in workers’ comp rate, which marks 12 years of average...
Pinnacol’s EverPeak Workers’ Comp Coverage Expands Into South Carolina
Sep 12 2024 // EverPeak Insurance, a workers’ compensation insurer that specializes in hard-to-place industries and small businesses, has recently expanded into South Carolina. Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Vlad...
SAIF in Oregon Declares $60M Dividend for Workers’ Comp Policyholders
Sep 11 2024 // The board of SAIF, a not-for-profit workers’ compensation insurer in Oregon, declared a $60 million dividend for their current policyholders. The funds will start being dispersed starting in October, with 51,288...
‘Dr. Taxes’ in Georgia Charged With Taking Workers’ Comp Premiums From Clients
Sep 10 2024 // A businessman in south Georgia who called his business a tax preparation site for immigrants is now facing multiple charges that he swindled clients out of thousands of dollars in workers’ compensation insurance...
New Hampshire Approves 5.6% Workers’ Compensation Loss Cost Decrease for 2025
Sep 6 2024 // The New Hampshire Insurance Department (NHID) reports that it has approved a workers’ compensation rate proposal that will reduce voluntary loss costs by 5.6% on average. The new lower rates will apply to voluntary...
NCCI Calls For Tiny Workers’ Comp Rate Decrease for Florida After New Doctor Fees
Sep 4 2024 // Annual workers’ compensation rate cuts in the double digits have become routine in almost every U.S. state in recent years. That trend may have now come to an end in Florida, where the National Council on...
Vocational School Owner Arraigned in $1M Workers’ Comp Fraud Case
Aug 30 2024 // Los Angeles area vocational school owner, Guillermo Frias, 65, of Paramount, and the school’s accounting manager, Yesid Colon, 54, of Baldwin Park, were arraigned following a California Department of Insurance...
Cal/OSHA Cites Nine Employers for Silica Safety Violations
Aug 29 2024 // California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health cited nine employers in Sun Valley following efforts to address the growing number of silicosis cases among stone workers in California. The safety violations...
New Jersey Raises Workers’ Compensation Attorney Fee Cap to 25%
Aug 26 2024 // New Jersey has raised the cap on fees for attorneys handling workers’ compensation cases from 20% to 25% of settlements. The primary sponsors of S2822/A3986 were Senator Joseph Lagana and Assemblymen Anthony Verrelli...
FCBI, a Florida Workers’ Comp Fund, Acquires MidSouth Mutual in Tennessee
Aug 26 2024 // FCBI, a self-insurance fund founded 45 years ago to provide workers’ compensation plans to Florida citrus growers, is expanding well beyond the Sunshine State with the acquisition of MidSouth Mutual Insurance Co. in...
Cyber Risk: West Virginia OIC Plans to Dispose of Older Workers’ Comp Files
Aug 22 2024 // The West Virginia insurance commissioner’s office has adopted a new policy: It will soon begin destroying workers’ compensation claim files that are 10 years old or older. “Given increasing cybersecurity...
Washington State Meter Reader Pleads Guilty in Workers’ Comp Scam
Aug 22 2024 // A 56-year-old former Washington State meter reader who claimed she was so traumatized from a workplace dog attack that she fainted at the sight of dogs has pleaded guilty in a workers’ compensation fraud...
Mississippi Poultry Plant Settles With OSHA After Teen’s 2023 Death
Aug 20 2024 // HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi poultry processing plant has agreed to a settlement with the U.S. Department of Labor that requires it to pay $164,814 in fines and put in place enhanced safety measures following...
West Virginia Governor Touts 20th-Straight Workers’ Comp Loss Cost Decrease
Aug 13 2024 // The National Council on Compensation Insurance is recommending a 9.1% decrease in workers’ compensation loss cost projections for the West Virginia voluntary market. If approved by regulators, it would mark the 20th...
Employer’s Clinic May Not be Protected by Workers’ Comp Remedy, SC Court Says
Aug 13 2024 // The South Carolina Court of Appeals has signaled that employers who offer on-site health clinics may not be immune from tort claims from injured or sickened workers. It’s the latest twist to a question that has...
OSHA Says Alleged Fall Hazards Could Cost Adidas in New York Nearly $400K
Aug 13 2024 // Federal workplace safety officials say that Adidas America Inc. – maker of one of the world’s best-selling sneakers – faces almost $400,000 in penalties for allegedly continuing to ignore federal...
Student-on-Employee Workers’ Compensation Assault Claims Drop: Gallagher Bassett
Aug 9 2024 // The number of workers’ compensation claims for student-on-school-employee assault dropped significantly during the 2023-24 school year, according to data from Gallagher Bassett. This change comes after two years of...
