Sunday, July 16, 2000 | 10:20 a.m.
When Sheri Newberry was named chief of the state Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation in 1997, she said her appointment irked other agency staffers who resented her as an "outsider."
They did not like being passed up for promotions, so Newberry said they began taking it out on her. She said she began losing sleep and her work performance suffered. For the first time in her life, she began seeing a therapist. She obtained a written statement from her doctor that her stress was caused by work.
"They isolated me," Newberry said of the other employees. "They didn't share information with me. They said everything I did was wrong. I could do no right. It became a situation of learned helplessness."
Newberry, who said she was forced into early retirement last year because of work-related stress, is now seeking to change Nevada's workers' compensation law to make it easier for stressed employees to get claims approved.
Newberry, 45, used to investigate workers' compensation claims for the state but ironically lost her own bid for benefits. She blamed the rejection on what she considered a narrowly written law.
She is urging Nevada legislators to revise the law to make it easier for workers to be compensated for mental disorders that lead to loss of sleep or lower productivity if they can document that their condition was caused by their workplace.
"Employers can deal with physical injuries, but when it comes to stress they don't know what to do," Newberry said. "When you show signs of depression in this state, they want to fire you."
Sympathetic lawmakers, a prominent union leader and an attorney who defends employees seeking workers' compensation are skeptical about the chances the 2001 Legislature will change the law as it relates to stress. They say that's because stress is hard to quantify and that the cost of such claims to insurers could be prohibitive.
"It would be difficult to differentiate between a legitimate and an illegitimate claim," Las Vegas attorney Dean Hardy said. "It's hard to determine who has a legitimate stress problem."
But Nevada Attorney for Injured Workers Nancyann Leeder, who heads a staff of 12 lawyers who serve as public defenders for injured employees, said employers could actually benefit from an expanded workers' compensation law that deals with stress.
Leeder said employees who believe they have no chance of getting workers' compensation instead may file civil lawsuits such as for sexual harassment that can end up costing their bosses more money.
If state law were expanded to handle more cases of work-related stress, "it would help employees get quicker treatment, perhaps," Leeder said.
"It would also help employers retain employees that they have invested in," she said.
Newberry hasn't given up. She convinced a legislative committee that studies workers' compensation to consider her suggestions. The committee is expected this fall to make recommendations for next year's legislative session.
When Newberry investigated workers' compensation cases for the state in the late 1980s and early '90s, she said it was common for policemen, firefighters and corrections officers to get stress-related claims approved. But in 1993 the Legislature began to reform what was then known as the State Industrial Insurance System, which hit rock bottom with $2.2 billion in debt.
There was a national movement at the time to reform workers' compensation because of rampant fraud, such as the faking of injuries. California also had been overloaded with stress-related claims. Nevada lawmakers reacted by making it more difficult for employees to receive compensation for on-the-job injuries.
SIIS has since been replaced by private insurers who cover workers' compensation. Employers may now purchase group or private insurance or run their own self-insurance plans.
"It's the law that's the problem, not the insurance carriers," said Bob Gagnier, executive director of the State of Nevada Employees Association. "The courts wanted workers' compensation to be more accessible, but the Legislature reacted by making it less accessible because of cost, pure and simple."
One result was the current law that allows compensation for work-related stress only for mental injuries caused by "extreme stress in time of danger." Most commonly this law has been applied in cases where there was physical harm.
Some state employees were compensated following a 1993 incident in which Jim Forrester crashed his Chevrolet Blazer into what was then the SIIS office in Las Vegas and then sprayed the building with bullets. Forrester, who said he was frustrated with the way SIIS handled his claim for a back injury, was sentenced to seven years in prison.
But Assemblyman David Goldwater, D-Las Vegas, recalled the case of a Nevada woman who told a legislative committee she could not get workers' compensation for mental anguish even though she was forced to perform sexual favors at gunpoint during a robbery. She was not physically harmed "but no one argued that damage was not done," Goldwater said.
He said he would like the law to be revised so that stress is compensated in all cases of workplace violence, even if the employee suffers no physical harm.
"It's incredibly narrowly defined," Goldwater said of the law. "But defining stress gets too much into a Pandora's box. If you start getting into stress claims, it could be burdensome for employers."
Defenders of the existing law include Employers of Nevada, a group representing mostly midsized and small businesses that supported the SIIS reforms. Group lobbyist and spokeswoman Lynn Grandlund said only life-threatening situations should be eligible for compensation when it comes to stress.
She also said workplace stress brought on by discrimination or harassment can be addressed through the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
"Backbiting at work can cause stress, but I do not feel that should be covered, because we all have the option of either confronting it or leaving the workplace," Grandlund said. "Stress can also occur at home and then be brought into the workplace."
The state law specifies that any ailment or disorder caused by any "gradual mental stimulus," such as the buildup of stress experienced by Newberry, is not eligible for workers' compensation.
"Gradual mental stimulus could mean a situation where a supervisor is pushing you toward production levels that are not realistic," Hardy said. "You can't keep up. That's a stressful work claim, but if you file for that, you will be denied."
Law enforcement officers aren't the only government employees with stressful jobs, Gagnier said. He said parole and probation officers have stressful workloads, while employees in welfare agencies and at the Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety must deal with abusive customers. Gagnier said the stress can lead to job burnout.
"When people have a lot of time to stand in line, they don't have a computer to take it out on," Gagnier said. "They take it out on the employee. But employees aren't filing workers' compensation claims for stress, because they're told they can't."
When Newberry reached her breaking point, she asked for a job transfer. But she said she was denied that opportunity, even though there were openings in other agencies such as the state Industrial Relations Division that could have used her background in vocational rehabilitation.
"Instead, they forced me into retirement," Newberry said. "For 19 years I was a good state employee. I was an employee you would want. For the last three years, you would think I couldn't get along with other employees, that I was a monster."
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