Business and labor organizations said they have held some meetings as they seek ways to revamp New York's workers' compensation system, but they have seen little action in the state legislature.
Discussions about changes were kicked off last November when Republican Gov. George Pataki in his lame duck term announced that workers' comp reform is part of his budget plan.
The governor called for passage of a comprehensive workers' comp plan to cut costs for businesses while increasing benefits for injured workers and keeping business, "especially manufacturing-based business, competitive in the global marketplace."
Gov. Pataki's proposal includes a tiered benefit structure that by some projections would reduce overall costs by 15 percent. His plan would peg the amount and duration of cash benefits entitled to an injured worker by the severity of disability.
It would, among other things, increase death benefits and the maximum weekly benefit rate from $400 to $500 a week by 2009 and set a fee schedule for pharmaceuticals.
A spokesman for business group New York Workers' Compensation Action Network, Steven Greenberg said currently "there is nothing new on the legislative front. There are discussions involving business and the labor community, but nothing formal at this point."
Art Wilcox, New York State AFL-CIO public employee director, noted that his organization said there have been "some conversations" between the union organization and employers. He said the group has been meeting the Business Council of New York State. Talks with central New York manufacturers, he said, have been "fruitful."
Mr. Wilcox said he has no desire to meet with attorney groups or NYCAN, which includes insurers. Referring to insurers and lawyers, he said, "I have no interest in talking with vendors…peddlers should not run this system."
NYCAN with the Business Council of New York State and National Federation of Independent Business held a press conference Wednesday, calling for reforms to the comp system.
Elliott Shaw, director of government affairs for the Business Council of New York State, said a comp cost crisis is undermining the state's competitiveness and losing New York jobs. Reform in the state "needs to happen this year," he said.
Larry Gilroy, NYCAN chairman, called on the legislature to "do its part" to make reforms a reality.
According to NYCAN, the governor's measure would provide a "comprehensive, thorough and balanced set of reforms" that would reduce premium rates 21.4 percent the first year and 15 percent thereafter.
A disabilities law firm has a different take, however. Troy Rosasco of Turley Redmond Rosasco law firm, in a blog item on Mr. Pataki's proposal, called it "mean spirited pablum." The item noted that even at $500, the maximum benefit would be only 52 percent of average weekly wage instead of the generally accepted rate of 66 percent.
It noted that among states adjoining New York, Connecticut already has a maximum benefit of $931 and New Jersey $891.
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