On September 12, 2023, the US DOL Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) posted new rules in the Federal Register with respect to Civil Monetary Penalties for failure to report. Background of This Rulemaking On April 28, 2020, OWCP hosted a public outreach webinar to solicit stakeholders' views on how OWCP could improve its processes. See E.O. [...]
Business representatives from 91 state and national business associations and employers submitted a letter on October 19, 2021 to the House and Senate in opposition to the inclusion of federal monitoring of state workers’ compensation. State workers’ compensation was created beginning more than 100 years ago in state constitutions and state statutes. State workers’ compensation is [...]
On Tuesday, March 2, 2021, UWC and a broad based coalition of business representatives submitted a letter of opposition to the inclusion of a presumption of workers’ compensation coverage and compensability for COVID-19 infection that was not in the course of employment and did not arise from employment. >> UWC and Business Groups File Opposition to [...]
In one of his Executive Orders on January 21st, President Biden ordered the development of federal guidance for Occupational Safety and Health. The order addresses issues that are temporary in response to COVID-19 but also begins to address longer term issues. In particular, Section 2 of the Executive Order provides that within two weeks of the [...]
On Monday, June 8, 2020, UWC submitted a letter of opposition to the House and Senate Committees with jurisdiction concerning Title V Section 120501 of the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act (HEROES Act) as it was passed by the House of Representatives. The letter was submitted to assure that the committees with jurisdiction [...]
President Trump Signs the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 on February 9, 2018 The Act includes a repeal of language that would have expanded the authority of Medicaid State plans to seek recovery for items and services covered under Medicaid from third party payments even when the third party payments were not related to the items [...]
The annual Workers’ Compensation Fiscal Data Research Bulletin showing state workers’ compensation system payments and costs from 2006 to 2015 is now available for purchase. The fiscal bulletin shows the continued economic expansion and trend toward lower benefit cost rates. The number of covered workers in all states increased from 129.9 million in 2014 to 132.4 million for [...]
On April 3rd President Trump signed HJ Res 83 disallowing OSHA regulations that were contrary to statute and expanded the period during which employers would be at risk of penalties for OSHA reporting errors. See announcement at https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/04/03/president-donald-j-trump-signs-hjres-69-hjres-83-hr-1228-sjres-34-law The rule that is being disallowed had the effect of extending to five years the statute of limitations on [...]
On March 7th The Department of Labor (DOL) submitted the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) sponsored information collection request (ICR) revision titled, ‘‘Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses,’’ to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval for use in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995. Public comments on the [...]
Comments due by October 26 The US Department of Labor on August 26, 2016 filed proposed rules for comment on the definition of minimum and maximum compensation rate annual adjustments. See https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-08-26/pdf/2016-20467.pdf The main issue in contention is that the US DOL Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs is proposing to employ the average weekly wage of [...]
