Mexico To Probe N.Y. WC Board
Angry over lengthy delays in claim processing, a coalition of immigrant workers' rights groups in the United States has persuaded a Mexican unit of NAFTA to investigate the New York State Workers Compensation Board.
The action, permissible under a side agreement of the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement, was taken because "Mexico says they are going to do the investigation in six months and thats lots shorter than the time a lot of the claims have been pending," said Sameer M. Ashar, a lawyer for the workers.
In the event that the lengthy procedure outlined in the treaty does not solve the case, it could ultimately result in arbitration or economic sanctions, according to a U.S. government official, Alfonso Onate, executive director of the Commission for Labor Cooperation in Washington.
A statement from the New York State Workers' Compensation Board said it was willing to meet with one of the workers groups, but Mr. Ashar, a professor with the New York University law school Immigrant Rights Clinic representing the groups, said previous meetings had been fruitless. "The board would take down complaints and problems and nothing would happen, and they met multiple times," he said.
Jon Sullivan, a representative for the workers' comp board, said so far his agency has not been contacted by Mexicos National Office of Administration, which is handling the matter. Mr. Ashar was notified Nov. 15 that the office "has decided to proceed to a review."
Mr. Sullivan declined to go beyond a statement from the board that said it provides "the best possible services for the injured workers and employers of New York State," and has reduced its inventory of pending cases.
According to Mr. Ashar, for immigrants the average claim takes six years to process. Mexico was petitioned on behalf of 13 workers, one of whom has had 20 hearings during a case pending for 10 years, he said.
The groups that brought the case–the Chinese Staff and Workers Association, National Mobilization Against Sweat Shops, Workers Awaaz, and Associacion Tepeyac–allege that immigrants face improper denials or delayed dispositions of their cases.
According to Mr. Ashar, no individual insurers stand out for their treatment of New York claims. "The problems seem to be across-the-board. The state allows long delays and people take advantage," he said.
Mr. Onate explained that under NAFTA, a petition or Public Communication can be filed as a recourse when individuals believe that local authorities in a country are not enforcing their own statutes. He said since the treaty was signed in 1994, there have been only 25 such complaints for all three nations. Many, he said, have been concluded during the process of investigation. In some cases, he noted, there have been public hearings.
Once a report is filed, there can be a request for a consultation by the labor secretaries of the three nations, and they can agree on an action plan to remedy any shortcomings that are found, and there could be an outreach seminar as a result, or a study of enforcement.
If one of the three labor secretaries is not satisfied with enforcement, a panel of experts may be called upon to advise, but so far none of the cases has reached that stage nor have any led to arbitration or sanctions, Mr. Onate related.
According to Newsday, the Long Island, N.Y. newspaper, foreign-born workers in New York account for three out of every 10 deaths on the job–the highest workplace fatality rate in the nation for immigrants.
Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, December 17, 2001. Copyright 2001 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.
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