WASHINGTON--Injured workers face a difficult landscape in seeking compensation and should be encouraged to exercise their rights, according to Edward Welch, director of the Workers' Compensation Center at Michigan State University.

"The workers' view of the workers' compensation system can be simply stated as 'the employers have done fairly well over the last 15 years, and the workers have done terribly,'" Mr. Welch said at a National Academy of Social Insurance policy symposium here.

He said over that time period, while the costs for employers to provide comp coverage have come down significantly, much of the reduction can be seen in reduced benefits for injured workers.

The reductions in benefits, he said, are effectively infringing on the rights that workers have earned, and those rights deserve specific protection.

"I think workers need a bill of rights," he said. In the past decade, he noted, reform efforts have swung the pendulum of the workers' comp issue in favor of employers and their insurers, and "those of us who care about workers have to work to bring that shift back."

Among the major issues, he explained, is that workers' comp has been depicted as rampant with fraudulent claims and, as a net result, workers have been made to feel shame for claiming what is rightfully theirs.

In speaking with attorneys, Mr. Welch said that many have told stories of workers apologizing for coming in to seek help in a compensation dispute, often explaining that "I'm not like those other people," who cheat the system.

"Workers gave up their right to sue in exchange for workers' compensation, and we've gotten to a situation where workers feel they have to apologize" for making a claim, he said.

In addition to changing the image of workers' comp as inherently fraudulent, Mr. Welch also called for turning the investigative eye on workers to their employers as well.

"We need as much enforcement in payroll fraud as we've had in worker fraud in recent years," he said, noting that employers who underreport their payroll are a factor in keeping costs higher for all policyholders.

Mr. Welch made his remarks in support of arguments for returning "balance" to the workers' comp system, a theme for other speakers at the event as well.

Bob Steggert, vice president of casualty claims for Marriott International Inc., said states are increasingly competing with each other and with other nations to lure business into their jurisdictions, and the workers' comp climate often plays a role in a business' decision on where it should be located.

Those states that look at the workers' comp system "from a balanced perspective" tend to do best, he added.

Overall, Mr. Steggert said that all sides of the issue--including labor, employers, insurers and policymakers--need to work together to reach pragmatic solutions that make the system work.

"Pragmatism is far more promising than offering parallel monologues to constituencies," he said, adding that oftentimes those conflicting monologues only serve to confuse the constituencies.

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