Weekly Opinion Editorial
FINALLY!
by Steve Fair
Real workers compensation reform is
within sight in Oklahoma! Senate Bill #1062, authored by Senator Brian
Bingman, (R-Sapulpa) passed the State House 74-24 last week. It now heads back to the Senate for approval
on the House amendments that were added and then to the Governor’s desk for
signature.
SB#1062 will move Oklahoma from a judiciary workers
compensation system to an administrative system. Oklahoma is one of only a handful of states
that still uses the court system to settle workers comp disputes. It is an adversarial system that reduces the
amount of payment to injured workers and forces Oklahoma employers to pay some of the
highest workers comp insurance rates in the country. Under the current system, workers who are
injured on the job could wait years for a benefits judgment due to the slow and
costly legal process under the current judicial system.
SB#1062 will implement a system
similar to Arkansas. Back in the early 1990s, Arkansas
moved from a system similar to what Oklahoma
has to an administrative system. Since
then, workers compensation insurance premiums to employers have dropped
steadily. Last year, Arkansas’
workers comp premiums were 63% of the national average, Oklahoma’s was 147% of the national average.
"There's too much
litigation in Oklahoma,"
said Allyn Tatum, a former Arkansas Workers Compensation Commission
chairman and Tyson Foods executive. "In Arkansas," said Tatum, "the
incentive is for employers to put employees back to work, and for employees to
go back to work."
In an interview with Capitalbeatok,
Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner
John Doak said, “Workers’ Compensation
reform is a subject that I identified as critical and important to our state
from the moment I was elected. Oklahoma
has one of the highest average costs of Workers Compensation benefits in the
nation at a rate of $830 per employee. Because Arkansas
and Texas are
under $300 per employee, this has not only had an impact on our state economy,
but also limits the growth of local businesses.”
Oklahoma Labor Commissioner Mark Costello told CapitalBeatOK
what might, politically, be the most significant thing about anticipated
passage of the administration system, saying, “The days where trial lawyers dominated Oklahoma politics for their own economic
interests are at an end. After all, it is workers’ comp, not lawyers’
comp.
Three observations about worker’s comp
reform:
First, don’t expect existing Oklahoma businesses to
start hiring more workers immediately because of the reduction in workers comp
premiums. It takes some time for the
impact of a price reduction to filter its way to the public. The long term impact will be significant,
particularly on the recruitment of new businesses to the Sooner state. For years, the knock on Oklahoma by potential businesses was we
didn’t have right-to-work; we had high workers compensation premiums and a
state income tax. Two out of three of
the issues have been addressed and the legislature is making progress on the
income tax (reducing it to below 5%).
Second, credit the Republican-led
legislature with having the courage to address the issue. Past legislatures have nibbled around the
edges of workers comp reform for years, making some progress, but still leaving
the lawyers in the system. They were
simply afraid of upsetting the powerful trial lawyer lobby who didn’t give up
easy. When Senator Anthony Sykes,
(R-Moore) presented workers comp reform two years ago, he was attacked
relentlessly by the trial lawyer lobby.
While Sykes didn’t waffle or crack under the pressure, their tactics
were effective enough with other legislators to derail a total change in the
system.
Third, workers compensation reform(SB#1062)
is a win-win! Oklahoma’s injured workers will get more
money in settlements. Oklahoma employers will pay lower
premiums. The system will be more civil
and less adversarial. What’s not to like
about that?
No comments:
Post a Comment