Happy New Year! We hope your 2018 is off to a great start.
January has already brought some severe winter weather to many parts of the country, and it looks like February will begin with another round of snow for the northeast states. While residents in those states tend to be more prepared and experienced with driving in wintry conditions, those of us in states that only experience sporadic winter storms generally aren’t equipped to handle these situations. When thinking of workers compensation, this brings to mind the “coming and going” rule that most states have.
While each state sets its own workers compensation legislation, most states have some variation of the “coming and going” rule, which means an accident that occurs while an employee is traveling to or from work is typically not compensable, preventing the employee from collecting workers compensation benefits. The main exception is a traveling employee in travel status. However, most states agree that once an employee enters the premises of the facility where he/she works, any injuries sustained would be compensable. As an example, if an employee is driving to work, hits a patch of ice, and crashes the vehicle, any injuries sustained would not be compensable, but an injury that occurs when an employee steps out of the car in the company parking lot and slips on ice would be compensable.
Employers in most states must also remember they are primarily liable under their workers compensation for any parking lot, sidewalk, or stairs/steps injuries that occur on the premises, even if another company manages the property. When winter storms strike, we see an increase in the number of claims involving parking lots, sidewalks, and stairs/steps, so it’s important to be vigilant about the maintenance of these areas before employees report for work to ensure the safest environment for your employees.
Also, when winter weather causes facility closures, there is a heightened risk that an employee may get hurt at home and then, once they return to work, try to claim they were injured at work. When closures occur, upon reopening, we highly recommend supervisors, risk managers, and/or other employer representatives be on the ground, speaking to employees as they report to work. Anything you can do to help prevent a fraudulent claim is time well spent!
Stay safe out there!
CONGRATULATIONS!
On behalf of Jim Wilson and the rest of our InSource team, we want to congratulate Jimmy Walker on recently being promoted within our organization from Executive Vice President to the position of President. In assuming his new duties as President, Jimmy will continue to oversee growth and development, in addition to taking on more responsibilities within our organization. Congratulations, Jimmy!
As we near the New Year, many people begin the ancient tradition of making resolutions in an effort to change undesired traits or behavior, to accomplish a personal goal or otherwise improve their life. The practice provides us a reminder to not only examine our own personal lives, but to also review our business practices for ways that we can improve. We encourage all our clients to reflect and resolve to accomplish a new goal in the New Year.
For our staffing clients, we have a best practice recommendation that strengthens both your and our protection. Some of you may already do this, but if you don’t, we encourage you to consider implementing it in the New Year, as we’ve seen positive effects of its use.
When assigning employees to work in customers’ facilities, we don’t necessarily have the daily opportunity to personally monitor the activities of all our employees. We have seen a growing number of claims resulting from a customer location instructing an employee to perform an activity that is not within the original scope of that employee’s assignment. One of our clients includes language in their business contracts to address this, and they have graciously given us permission to share this portion with you. Feel free to customize and adapt the language below to best fit your company.
Unless the Client Company has obtained the prior consent of (Staffing Company Name), the Client Company agrees not to ask or allow a staffing service employee to perform any of the following related activities:
- Driving an automobile or other motor vehicle;
- Operating machinery and equipment unless discussed with (Staffing Company Name);
- Operating machinery other than that which employee has been trained to use;
- Handling cash, securities, or other valuables.
If this prior consent is not obtained, the Client Company agrees to waive all rights to make a claim against (Staffing Company Name) and to relieve (Staffing Company Name) from all liability and responsibility for any damage, loss, or expense which the Client Company incurs as a result of this staffing service employee engaging in such activities. The Client Company further agrees to indemnify and hold harmless (Staffing Company Name) from and against all claims, damages, bodily injuries, losses, and expenses which might be caused as a result of the staffing service employee engaging in any of these activities upon the direction and supervision of the Client Company.
The Client Company agrees to provide (Staffing Company Name) employees with the site-specific safety necessary for them to perform the assignment in a safe manner. This would include training in Hazard Communication, use of Personal Protective Equipment, and any other training topic specific to the site and assignment. The Client Company agrees not to expose any (Staffing Company Name) employees to unnecessary hazard or extra hazard, and not to violate any OSHA or safety law or regulation whether federal, state, or local.
If you have any questions, please reach out to your Account Manager, Rick, or me, and we will be glad to discuss this further with you.
As Dawn stated in her email on Monday, my husband & I have decided to retire from our “day jobs” and take the time to enjoy our 4 grandchildren and pursue our passion for travel. My last day with InSource will be December 31st.
I have had the pleasure of working with all of our great clients, the competent agents and the wonderful InSource team for the past 8 years, and many of you I have known much longer. I will always be grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this wonderful organization!For my last newsletter, I wanted to review Risk Management best practices:
1. Hire the right people! Utilize all tools available in order to make the best hiring decision: review the application, background checks, pre-employment drug test, postoffer medical questionnaire, skills testing.
2. Provide Orientation. Communicate with your new employee! Review dress codes & expectations for the job. Review the safety manual including what to do in case of an accident. Review all personal protective equipment required for the job. Provide policies & procedures in writing, request a signature of understanding.
3. Provide a safe place to work. Conduct safety inspections to include housekeeping, machinery safety, fire protection & evacuation procedures, etc.
4. Provide Training. Ensure the worker has been trained before the assignment begins.
5. Develop a relationship with an Urgent Care or Occupational Clinic and educate the physician on the job site and specific job descriptions.
6. Know what to do in case the employee is injured! Treat the employee as if he was your own child & the school has called! What happened? What is hurting? Get to a Dr! (drug test). Fill a prescription (utilize the “First Fill letter”). Clarify return-to-work (school). Follow up.
7. Investigate. Go to the jobsite, and if the injured worker is available, take him with you. Answer the “what” “where” “when” “how” and “why” (and no, it’s never “just an accident”). Correct the unsafe condition (see #3). Learn from all injuries so they won’t be repeated.
8. Provide light duty! Do not isolate the injured worker. Sitting home, collecting a pay check, does not help him mentally or physically. Providing light duty benefits him and you! (see my light duty newsletters).
9. Evaluate loss runs, look for places where injuries have occurred more than once, look for repeat injury types. Discuss during Safety Committee meetings. (see #3).
10. Maintain a positive attitude! Enjoy your work and your workers!
InSource will be closed on Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving Holidays. We wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!
I cannot over emphasize the importance of getting an employee back to work as soon as possible. If your company has a policy of “full duty capability or nothing”, your Workers Compensation claims cost will be 300% higher than those companies that provide modified work! But that is just one of the many benefits of having an early return-to-work policy.
Why should an Employer be interested in a light duty/return to work? Here are some benefits to the Employer:
- Retains valuable employees, improves employee morale & demonstrates employees are a valuable asset to the company.
- Injured worker is less likely to hire an attorney increasing expenses for everyone.
- Reduces disability claims cost impacting future premium rates.
- Reduces medical cost.
- Encourages faster recuperation returning employee to full production more quickly.
- Reduces potential for workers’ compensation malingering & fraud.
If your company simply cannot accommodate a less than 100% worker, InSource can assist you by providing temporary transitional employment for the worker. We utilize companies that contract with non-profit agencies that appreciate the additional assistance while the worker continues to recover from an injury.
The benefits to the injured worker include:
- Stays productive and avoids disability syndrome.
- Faster recovery.
- Encourages meaningful & productive work activity.
- Focuses on abilities rather than limitations.
- Stress, boredom & depression are reduced or eliminated.
- Develops physical tolerance for work, including strength & endurance.
- Help others/sense of community.
Whether you provide modified duty work or utilize a third-party agency to provide light duty, the injured worker remains on your payroll. You can pay the full hourly wage or reduce the wages to minimum wage or somewhere in between. If you pay less than full wage, the adjuster will “true up” through a partial wage replacement.
Providing early return-to-work is a requirement under the InSource or Business Insurers of GA agreement. The reasons are obvious in that you depend on InSource to help you with policies to reduce your overall cost of workers’ compensation. Return-to-work is the number one way to reduce this cost and this is why we strongly emphasize its implementation.
Accident Investigations
I read this today and wanted to pass on these words of wisdom:
“The only up-side to an accident is to perform a thorough study of it with hopes of preventing any more like it”.
Wow, read that again and think about it. That is why an accident investigation process is so important!
A successful accident investigation must always focus on discovering the root causes.
Root causes exist in areas such as workplace design, cultural and organizational factors, equipment maintenance and other technical matters, operating systems and procedures, staffing, supervision, training, etc.
It’s been said that “Eliminating the immediate causes is like cutting weeds, while eliminating the root causes is equivalent to pulling out the roots so that the weed cannot grow back”.
Focus on the Root Causes, Not Blame or Fault!
If an investigation is focused on finding fault, it will always stop short of discovering the root causes. It is essential to discover and correct all the factors contributing to an incident or accident, which nearly always involve equipment, procedural, training, and other safety and health program deficiencies.
By addressing the underlying or root cause, you can understand why an incident occurred, develop truly effective corrective actions, and thereby minimize or eliminate serious consequences from similar future accidents.
Moreover, if an investigation is understood to be a search for “someone to blame,” both management and labor will be reluctant to participate in an open and forthright manner. Workers will be afraid of retaliation and management will be concerned about recognizing system flaws because of potential legal and financial liabilities.
Although a supervisor sometimes conducts incident investigations, to be most effective investigations should be conducted by a team in which managers and employees work together, since each brings different knowledge, understanding, and perspectives to an investigation. Working together will also encourage all parties to “own” the conclusions and recommendations and to jointly ensure that corrective actions are implemented in a timely manner.
Where the incident involves a temporary worker provided by a staffing agency, both the staffing agency and the host employer should conduct an incident investigation If a temporary worker is injured and the host employer knows about it, the staffing agency should be informed promptly, so the staffing agency knows about the hazards facing its workers. Equally, if a staffing agency learns of an injury, it should inform the host employer promptly so that future injuries might be prevented, and the case is recorded appropriately. Both the host employer and staffing agency should track and where possible, investigate the cause of workplace injuries.
But remember, investigations should focus on identifying root causes, not establishing fault. We suggest that ALL accidents should be investigated — no matter how “incidental”.
Our goal is to prevent accidents from occurring. Always Safety First!
Solar Eclipse & WC Entitlement?
Much excitement is abuzz in anticipation of the total solar eclipse visible throughout the US next Monday. You may have received cautionary emails about viewing the sun without the proper glasses, etc. The following article in Business Insurance Publication outlined the risk, and addresses the workers compensation issues. Therefore, my newsletter is a week early so I can share this article with you.
Employers planning to host solar eclipse viewing parties should be aware of employee safety and workers compensation concerns.
On Aug. 21, a total solar eclipse will take place and will be visible from cities including Portland, Oregon; Denver; Kansas City, Missouri; Nashville, Tennessee; Atlanta; and Charlotte, North Carolina. This is the first time a total eclipse has been visible in the United States since 1979.
The rarity of this occurrence will likely draw widespread interest and employers have planned solar eclipse viewing parties. “Many employers are having eclipse watching parties.
I have even recently heard about a very large employer that is in the path (of the eclipse that is) closing its headquarters for the day as a celebration of this rare cosmic event,” Shirley Lerner, Minneapolis, Minnesota-based shareholder and attorney at Littler Mendelson P.C., said Monday in an emailed statement.
With solar eclipse viewing parties, employers should be aware of the safety guidelines provided by NASA. “An employer should provide ISO 12312-2 compliant viewing glasses if they are encouraging or hosting a viewing party,” Amy K. Harper, Journey to Safety Excellence & Workplace Strategy Director at the National Safety Council based in Itasca, Illinois, said Thursday in an emailed statement.
Ms. Harper points to NASA’s safety guidelines as a navigation tool for employers. People attending a viewing party should not look directly at the sun, nor look at the sun through a camera, binoculars, telescope or other optical devices. Using solar filters with those devices can cause eye injuries, according to NASA.
If injuries do occur at an employer-sponsored solar eclipse viewing party, employees may be covered under workers comp, according to experts.
“There have been situations where company-sponsored on-site social activities have led to workers compensation claims,” Ms. Lerner said. “Courts may find workers compensation liability where the employee is reasonably fulfilling the duties of the employment or engaged in doing something incidental to the employment. For this reason, any eclipse watching event should be made clearly voluntary.”
Employers should be aware of how official and company sponsored the event is, according to experts.
“One of the issues is, to what extent do the employees feel that there is some degree of compulsion to attend,” said Merton Marks, Phoenix-based attorney for Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani L.L.P.
“It would either be workers comp or not covered by workers comp. The issue is: is this a company event? If the employer throws the party, pays for the food, tells the employees to come, there’s some degree of compulsion to go because it is part of the employment, then it is a work-related item. You see this often in Christmas party cases,” Mr. Marks said.
“A company event that is not required by the employer would not normally fall under workers compensation,” Ms. Lerner said. “So, if the employer plans an eclipse watching event, the employer should make it clear this is not a required activity and is not intended as compensation to the employee.”
Employers should make their expectations clear before the event takes place, Ms. Lerner said. “Will they allow employees to leave the premises or just view from a window? For how long? If employees are absent without a legitimate excuse, what will happen?” she said.
This article addresses viewing parties, etc. but an employer must also consider an employee who is required to be outside, or required to look at the sky for any reason, such as cable installers, tree trimmers, landscapers, etc. Employees who work outside should be reminded of the dangers involved in looking at it with the naked eye or without the appropriate protection.
Perhaps employers could circulate a memo requiring anyone who wishes to observe the eclipse take personal time off and that observation is not allowed while on the clock. Alternatively, the attached graphic can be posted in all of your locations to remind your employees of the dangers of eclipse viewing.
We believe eclipse related eye claims would very likely not be compensable, and with appropriate steps taken, our employees will remain safe during this event.
Unsafe behaviors or decisions are usually contributing factors in incidents. Sometimes an unsafe behavior increases the severity of injuries; other times, it is simply a key determinant in causing the incident.
While employers have a large responsibility to control hazards for their employees, the role employees play is vital. If you understand the hazards of your job and the safe behaviors required of you, and you do your part to help, many accidents can be avoided.
Examples of Behaviors That Must Be Avoided at All Times
- Displacing or bypassing safeguards
- Bypassing a lockout process
- Bypassing any established safety procedure or device
- Walking under suspended loads
- Using an ungrounded portable electric hand tool
- Reaching into hazardous areas of machinery
- Manually lifting loads that are too heavy or awkward
- Overloading a scaffold or forklift
- Taking a shortcut by climbing over a moving conveyer belt
- Chipping or grinding without safety glasses or goggles and a face shield
- Cleaning parts with flammable or toxic solvents, especially in poorly-ventilated areas
A successful safety program includes you being aware of the hazards of tasks, knowing the critical behaviors, and following them.
On June 19, 2017, American Airlines announced it cancelled approximately 45 regional flights due to intense summer heat in the Phoenix area and there were record highs recorded in the region. The intense heat waves serves as a good reminder that OSHA provides guidance on heat stress and employers may need to do more than simply offer employees a cold beverage or an extra rest period although certainly water, rest, and shade are some ways to prevent heat stress illnesses.
In fact, OSHA launched a Heat Illness Prevention campaign in 2011 designed to educate employers and employees on the dangers of working in the heat and the phrase “water, rest, and shade” is OSHA’s tag line for the campaign. According to OSHA, dozens of workers die and thousands more become ill while working in extreme heat or humid conditions. OSHA further states that approximately 40 percent of heatrelated work deaths occur in the construction industry but that employees in any industry could be affected and without regard to age or physical condition.
Heat stroke is the most serious heat illness but other illnesses may include heat exhaustion, heat cramps, and heat rash. Although there is no specific standard, OSHA has cited employers for failing to abate recognized heat hazards under the general duty clause.
According to OSHA, a Heat Illness Prevention Program should contain the following key elements: • Person designated to Oversee the Program • Hazard identification • Water, Rest, Shade Message • Acclimatization • Modified Work Schedules • Training • Monitoring for Signs and Symptoms • Emergency Planning and Response.
Risk factors that should be part of hazard identification include: (1) high temperature and humidity, direct sun exposure and no breeze or wind; (2) heavy physical labor; (3) no recent exposure to hot workplaces; (4) low liquid intake; and (5) waterproof clothing.
Of particular note is that workers new to outdoor jobs are generally most at risk for heat-related illnesses. OSHA statistics indicate that almost half of heat-related illnesses investigated involved a worker who was on their first day of work and in 80% of the cases the worker involved had only been on the job for four or few days. This is why it is very important to gradually increase the workload or allow more frequent breaks to help new employees or those returning to work after a time away to build tolerance to hot conditions, i.e., acclimatization.
OSHA also encourages employers to use the heat index (as opposed to just air temperature alone) to determine appropriate heat stress abatement strategies and protocols. The “heat index” is a single value that takes both temperature and humidity into account. The higher the heat index, the hotter the weather feels. Indeed, OSHA has a mobile application available to download that allows supervisors or workers to calculate the heat index for their worksite and based on the heat index, displays the risk level and offers reminders about proactive measures.
OSHA has also published a Fact Sheet on protecting workers from the effects of heat which is available on their website and also attached here.
InSource will be closed on Tuesday, the Fourth of July, to commemorate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Enjoy your celebrations of fireworks, parades, barbecues, & baseball games in a fun but safe manner!
The following is a nationwide event that you may be interested in. It’s called “Safe + Sound Week” and it’s being held June 12 -18. Here are some bullet points:
What Is Safe + Sound Week?
A nationwide event to raise awareness and understanding of the value of safety and health programs that include management leadership, worker participation, and a systematic approach to finding and fixing hazards in workplaces.
Why Participate?
Safe workplaces are sound businesses. Successful safety and health programs can proactively identify and manage workplace hazards before they cause injury or illness, improving sustainability and the bottom line. Participating in Safe + Sound Week can help get your program started or energize an existing one.
Who Is Encouraged to Participate?
Organizations of any size or in any industry looking for an opportunity to show their commitment to safety to workers, customers, the public, or supply chain partners should participate.
How to Participate
Participating in Safe + Sound Week is easy. To get started, select the activities you would like to do at your workplace. Some organizations might want to host a public event. Examples of potential activities and tools to help you plan and promote your events are available. After you’ve completed your events, you can download a certificate and web badge to recognize your organization and your workers.
This is being spearheaded by OSHA & ASSE (American Society of Safety Engineers). You can get more information and plenty of safety resources on their website: www.osha.gov/safeandsoundweek/