It's About TIME! Campaign for Workers Health & Safety
It's About TIME! c/o NMASS · P.O. Box
130293 · New York, NY 10013 · Tel (718) 625-9092
· Fax (718) 625-8950
Date: March 29, 2004
Contact: JoAnn Lum (718) 625-9091
** PRESS RELEASE**
Injured Workers Call on N.Y. State G.O.P. to
Oppose Pataki Workers' Comp Proposals
Launch campaign to show negative impact on
economy & workers' health
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Injured worker members of the It's About TIME! Campaign for Workers'
Health & Safety today call on Senate Majority Leader Joseph
Bruno and the Republican leadership in the NY State Senate to
strongly oppose Governor Pataki's recently announced proposal
to reform the NYS Workers' Compensation system. Workers and advocates
are concerned that Bruno will bow to insurance industry pressure
and concede the passage of Pataki's Workers' Comp reforms in the
Senate.
At a Senate Labor Committee hearing last Wednesday, business
and insurance representatives dominated the testimony given to
legislators, and heavily praised Pataki's proposal as a "cost-cutting"
measure, despite mounting evidence that shows the financial burden
for injured workers and local governments dramatically increase
when the costs to businesses and insurance carriers are decreased.
Laura Gillis, a spokesperson for the It's About TIME! Campaign,
urged Senate Republicans to take a stand for working people, stating,
"The governor's so-called 'reforms' will have a disastrous
impact on all workers' health, as well as serious long-term implications
for New York state and county governments that are forced to take
on insurance carriers' fiscal responsibility to care for the health
and well-being of injured workers."
Pataki's plan - which workers criticize as "irresponsible
and impractical" - would limit benefits for workers with
"permanent partial disabilities" to 500 weeks, or approximately
9½ years, after which injured claimants would not be eligible
for cash benefits or medical treatment. Although Pataki proposes
to raise the maximum benefit level, advocates note that this change
will not be implemented for three more years and will have a negligible
effect for the 97% of injured workers that don't receive the maximum
benefit. "What injured workers really need is an increase
in the minimum weekly benefit level, as well as immediate interim
benefits," said Gillis. "Otherwise, the Workers' Comp
Board will continue to allow insurance carriers to use every possible
excuse to delay cases for years and steadily cut workers' benefits
down to the $40 weekly minimum or less." New York State workers'
compensation benefit levels have not been raised in over ten years,
and the minimum benefit is one of the lowest in the U.S., lagging
far behind that of neighboring states.
(partial list) Chinese Staff & Workers Association, National
Mobilization Against SweatShops, Workers Awaaz, Catholic Charities,
Council of Churches of the City of New York, Interreligious Foundation
for Community Organization, New York State Catholic Conference,
Rev. James Fitzgerald, Minister for Mission and Social Justice
at the Riverside Church, Rev. N.J. L'Heureux Jr. - Queens Federation
of Churches, Rev. Margaret Shafer - The Fifth Avenue Presbyterian
Church, Rev. Kooperkamp, St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Arch Deacon
Michael S. Kendall, Episcopal Diocese of NY, Greater New York
Labor Religion Coalition, The Civic Committee for the Baptist
Ministers Conference of Greater-NY & Vicinity, Chinese United
Methodist Church, Local 375 of District Council 37, 318 Restaurant
Workers Union, Asociación Tepeyac de New York, Bellevue
Occupational and Environmental Health Clinic, Beyond Ground Zero,
Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School, Cabrini Immigrant
Services, Center for Economic and Social Rights, Chinese American
Arts Council, Church of St. Teresa, DAMAYAN Migrant Workers Association,
Dominican Women's Development Center, Harlem Fightback!, Jews
for Racial and Economic Justice, Judson Memorial Church, MADRE,
An International Women's Human Rights Organization, Make the Road
by Walking, Metropolitan Council on Housing, National Employment
Law Project, New Immigrant Community Empowerment, New York Taxi
Workers' Alliance, New York Unemployment Project, Our Lady of
Guadalupe Parish, Polish National Catholic Church, Polonians Organized
to Minister to Our Community, Inc., Ramon Nieves, UMCOR Disaster
Relief Response Program, Rev. Cannon Carmen R. Guerrero, The Episcopal
Church
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