Democrats’ reforms favor employees

By J. Patrick Coolican

Wednesday, April 8, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Elections matter, and there was no clearer sign than an Assembly Commerce and Labor Committee hearing this week dealing with workers’ compensation insurance law.

Democrats, who won control of the state Senate and expanded their Assembly majority last year, are helping favored interest groups and tilting the workers’ compensation system for injured workers away from management and toward labor.

In 1995 the Legislature instituted a system of administrative fines for companies that denied workers’ claims in “bad faith” by knowingly violating the law. At the same time, lawmakers took something away from workers by eliminating their right to sue in court.

Assembly Bill 511 would restore workers’ right to sue. The bill was on the top of the wish lists of plaintiff attorneys and labor unions.

At the hearing, Commerce and Labor Chairman Marcus Conklin, a Las Vegas Democrat, gave a monologue on the problems with the current system, citing a constituent who could get no relief from either the workers’ insurance company or the state’s Division of Industrial Relations, which regulates insurance for injured workers.

“This goes on for months and months and months,” Conklin said. “Deny, deny, deny. I pick up the phone and call. No action taken.”

Conklin said fines were issued, only to have the company shut its doors and open as a new limited liability corporation.

He concluded: “I point out this because from the point of view of an ordinary person, when the system fails me, I have no recourse? None. And that’s what this is about. You have no access to justice? No access to the court? That’s problematic.”

George Ross, a lobbyist representing big business, including the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, made his own impassioned plea. He said Nevada’s beleaguered private sector couldn’t afford the inevitable increase in costs that would come from changes to the workers’ compensation system.

“If you look at the overall health of the economy of this state and the overall health of those thousands of businesses, you might reconsider,” he said. Ross said the proposed change would lead to higher insurance costs and legal fees.

He said it wouldn’t just be business, but local government and school districts, which would then be forced to choose between textbooks and legal fees.

Ross and other lobbyists for business interests are also concerned about two other workers’ compensation bills the Legislature is considering.

Senate Bill 366 would force employers to show that a worker’s injuries did not occur on the job. Currently, the law places the burden of proof on the worker to prove the injury was on the job.

Assembly Bill 178 would make a series of changes to help workers, including making it easier to reopen claims and shielding from unfair termination workers who do open claims.

Workers and their allies in the Legislature say these reforms are needed to stop abusive insurers from unfairly denying claims or employers from unfairly firing injured workers.

Even if the proposed the legislation does not become law, Democrats have staked out a tough negotiating position from which to bargain.

Ross pleaded with legislators not to remake the system because of a few bad actors.

“These are a sharp sword pointed right at the heart of the workers’ comp system in this state,” Ross said.

He said 92 percent of claims are accepted, which proves the system works.

But for plaintiff lawyers, labor unions and liberal Democrats who powerlessly watched as big business tweaked the system in its favor one legislative session after another for two decades, these changes have been a long time coming — and the time is now.

Danny Thompson, head of the Nevada AFL-CIO, thundered with indignation as he told the story of a worker injured on the job and denied benefits.

“He lost his house, his car, his family, was homeless for two years,” Thompson said. “He was hurt on the job and he was denied. You can multiply him by untold numbers of your constituents.”

Business lobbyists expected this session to be a difficult one, with Democrats in control of both houses for the first time in memory and labor unions wanting to move aggressively after contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Democratic effort to take the Legislature.

Still, even some veteran business lobbyists seem surprised at the tenor of things.

One lobbyist, who was granted anonymity to speak freely about sitting legislators, said it was time to go find some talented political consultants to run opposition candidates.

He was acknowledging, in other words, that elections matter.