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The New York State Senate and Assembly have introduced the first Worker''s Compensation reform bills in over a decade that would increase benefits for injured workers. If the bill passes, it will improve benefits for thousands of UFT members who are most vulnerable to on-the-job injuries: nurses, paraprofessionals, and lab specialists who have Worker''s Compensation coverage. (All other UFT members are covered by the Department of Education.)
New York State is the lowest provider of wage benefits in all 50 states, a situation that Anne Goldman, special representative for nurses, calls "shameful, a broken promise to the workers of this state."
The current maximum salary replacement paid to an injured worker is $400 a week, with average compensation at $234 a week. The compensation is based on a formula that has not changed since1992.
"Our nurses can''t live on $400 a week," Goldman says. "They put their life on the line every day exposed to HIV, contagious diseases, and multiple fractures in the lifting, bending and pulling they do, but the state isn''t compensating them fairly."
Bills S. 6135 and A. 9736 aim to increase compensation in annual $75 increment, with the final increase in 2006 setting the benefit at 2/3 of the state''s average weekly wage, which would equal $594 a week. The current compensation is only 44% of the average wage. Beginning in 2007, the amount of compensation would subject to annual adjustment.
The reforms would also force employers to take more responsibility for workplace safety, allowing workers to file personal injury lawsuits if the employer had been previously cited for safety violations. A medical trust would also be established, meaning that workers would no longer have to wait for months or years to get necessary diagnostic tests or treatment.
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