The head of California's largest private sector workers' compensation carrier said he supports enactment of a measure to increase benefits for injured workers that an insurance trade group hopes to see vetoed.

Stanley Zax--president and chairman of Zenith National Insurance Company in Woodland Hills, Calif.--said yesterday he would send a letter to Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asking him to sign SB 815, which is now on his desk.

"To my view, this is good legislation," Mr. Zax said of the bill, which has drawn opposition from the American Insurance Association and other business groups.

The measure, if signed, would be phased in over three years starting Jan. 1, 2007, and would increase the number of benefit weeks for each level of disability. AIA calls the bill premature and argues it would unwind comp law reforms of 2004.

A spokesman for Gov. Schwarzenegger, David Ng, said he had not yet taken a position on the bill but, "will veto any bill that rolls back historic workers' compensation reforms that have helped create nearly 600, 000 jobs since he became governor."

Asked if Mr. Schwarzenegger considered SB 815 a rollback, Mr. Ng said, "you'll have to wait and see."

Mr. Zax said that the measure "is not a change in the reforms. This is an increase in benefits because the impact of reforms won't be known for quite a number of years.

Making changes in benefits, he said, is "not that unusual, and in this case it's appropriate because there is a serious concern whether there were unintended negative [reform] effects on the permanent benefits."

It is appropriate "to make sure legitimately injured workers aren't impacted," Mr. Zax said, adding that, "it is not in anyone's interest for workers to be cheated. That's why I think this [bill] is timely and appropriate."

Asked if he had discussed the matter with other insurers, Mr. Zax said crisply, "I don't talk to my competitors."

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Big Calif. Comp Insurer Backs Benefits Upgrade

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