New Mexico lawmakers are attempting to close a loophole thatallows employees to receive workers' compensation benefits forinjuries sustained at work while intoxicated or stoned, accordingto a story in the New Mexico Watchdog.
|The story cites an example in 2006 where a Las Cruces citysanitation employee fell off a garbage truck and injured his head.Although he had a blood alcohol level of .12 at the time of hisfall, nearly double the legal limit in New Mexico, an appeals courtallowed him $90,000, or 90% of his workers'comp claim.
|“The intent of the law called for a penalty to be built in if anemployee showed up for work drunk and got into a car accident, buthow the law is applied now, it's very hard for that to go intoeffect,” Darin Childers, director of the New Mexico Workers'Compensation Advisory Council, told the New MexicoWatchdog.
|Rep. Dennis Roch (R-Texico), who introduced the bill to amendthe state's Workers' Compensation Act, says in the storythat the bill is “a personal responsibility issue.”
|Read more from Rob Nikolewski at the New Mexico Watchdog.
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