NU Online News Service, May 23, 3:17 p.m.EDT--The head of the Workers Compensation ResearchInstitute said he was surprised by an AFL-CIO attack on theorganization's focus because he had recently asked for union inputon study topics.

"I'm perplexed," said Richard Victor, executive director of the22-year-old Cambridge, Mass.-based group.

Mr. Victor commented after Robert E. McGarrah Jr., AFL-CIOcoordinator for workers' compensation, released a critical letterThursday addressed to Mr. Victor, which said thenationally-recognized group, that studies comp system workings,rather than being independent, is a tool of the insuranceindustry.

An e-mail copy of the letter was forwarded by NationalUnderwriter to WCRI, but the research group leader said he stillhad not received a hard copy of the and the timing of thecorrespondence perplexed him because he had asked one of the fourunion leaders who signed it "to send a list of research ideas toconduct studies from."

He said he had passed the list on to Mr. McGarrah, "and wasawaiting his reactions, the goal of which is to get his input anddo valuable research. I hope this letter was not intended to endthose discussions."

Mr. McGarrah had written, in part, that in its entire historyWCRI has not "produced a single study on the effect and practicesof the insurance industry in pricing and administering the workers'compensation system."

The letter said the peer review process of research was "notonly flawed, but also fails to meet even the most rudimentarystandards of scholarly research."

Mr. Victor said he was proud of the group's quality, rigor andtransparency of the group's research and that it is the onlyorganization that studies the states' comp systems on both cost toemployers and workers outcomes, "which makes us prettybalanced."

He said the group besides some state labor groups has a diversemembership that includes employers, state governments andinsurers.

Mr. Victor said he found it perplexing that worker advocates"don't value the focus that WCRI has on how workers fare in the[comp] system."

He added that he felt, "pretty comfortable about the fairness,integrity and quality of what we do."