North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Blog Continues to Look to Other States for Fascinating News – This Time, Kansas!
This North Carolina workers’ compensation blog recently covered an amazing political dog fight out of Washington state. Today, we’re going to touch on something happening closer by – in Kansas. KS Governor Sam Brownback just signed a bill rewriting the state’s workers’ comp laws – these new laws will go into effect on May 15th. At a ceremony for the bill on April 18th, Brownback and the backers of this revamp – which passed both the Kansas Senate and House without opposition – celebrated the reforms as an effective compromise between the interests of labor and businesses.
Employers won a few key battles. It will now be more difficult for employees to get comp if they hurt themselves at work while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Also, injured employers will not get benefits if they got hurt or sick prior to employment. This is obviously fair. If you hurt your hands working an assembly line job and then switched over to become a high school guidance counselor, it would make zero sense to hold your new school to account for the hard-labor-related damage to your hands.
Workers did get some concessions, however. The families of workers who die on the job will now receive $300,000.00 (instead of $250,000.00), and comp for permanent injuries will also rise.
How and when will the North Carolina workers’ compensation system be revamped?
Will all the reforming going on in places like Kansas and Washington impact local politics, even peripherally? Hard to say. But it’s clear that getting comp costs under control is a big priority. With budgets tightening and the national debt swelling, you can be sure that business leaders and politicos will be focusing more and more on how to save and cut corners. This is good, at least in the abstract.
The key is to make sure that hurt and injured workers rights stay protected – and that the systematic problems that are causing or exacerbating our budgetary crisis get addressed through rational policy and good science.
Do you or someone you care about need help from a North Carolina workers’ compensation law firm? Even if you think you’ve got your benefits issues all under control, it may be useful to speak with experienced legal representatives.
More Web Resources:
KS Governor Sam Brownback
