March 6, 2009
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Legislative Update for KS & MO
Kansas
In follow-up to Monday's tip of the week on Kansas Legislation, forceful opposition by leading business groups Wednesday appeared to put a labor-backed workers’ compensation bill on the ropes.
According to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman David Wysong, R-Mission Hills there were not enough votes on the panel to recommend approval of Senate Bill 258. The bill would require the Kansas Department of Labor to adjust the caps on workers’ comp benefits to an amount equal to the Midwest cost of living adjustment.
Benefits for total disability, partial disability and total disability over a temporary timeframe haven’t increased in Kansas since 1987. For example, the cap for permanent and total disability is $125,000, and the cap for a permanent and partial disability is $100,000.
On Wednesday, numerous business groups testified against the bill. The groups said they feared the change would result in a large increase in workers’ comp premiums.
Missouri
Missouri Supreme Court decision preserves 2005 workers’ compensation law
After hearing arguments on the case more than fifteen months ago, the Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday (2/24/09) handed down its ruling on a workers’ compensation law enacted in 2005. The court ruled that the appellants in the case, the Missouri Alliance for Retired Americans, did not have standing to challenge the constitutionality of the law and the court dismissed all but one of the plaintiff’s arguments.
Apart from the constitutional challenges of the case, the court ruled a declaratory judgment on the law’s narrowing of the definition of the type of injury that falls within the classification of a workplace accident meriting compensation.
Because the law removed certain injuries and accidents from the scope of workers’ compensation, the act places these injuries outside of the workers’ compensation system, the ruling explained. These individuals are in the position to seek recovery in civil court, as they no longer fall within the exclusivity provision of the law.
The key problem with the system prior to the 2005 reforms was that anything and everything was considered compensable under the system which was driving up costs and keeping workers truly injured on the job from receiving benefits.
The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry was the lead lobbying force behind passage of sweeping workers' compensation reforms in 2005. Following are key provisions of the 2005 workers' compensation reforms:
- Establishing a legal threshold for accident, injury, and occupational disease to more fairly determine what injuries should fall into workers’ compensation and to create a legal stopgap for abuse and fraud;
- Reforming base law that had liberally construed workers’ compensation law against the employer, requiring an impartial review of evidence and a strict review of the law itself so that both sides of a case are treated fairly;
- Keeping in check the power of administrative law judges – individuals responsible for ruling on workers’ compensation cases; and
- Abrogating three court case holdings that had broadly expanded which injuries were compensable.
For more information please visit the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry web page at: http://www.mochamber.com.
*Please feel free to forward this information to any member of management in your company who would benefit from it.*
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