Latest Workers' Compensation Headlines

All the headlines from our Workers' Compensation Topic Page, ordered by recency.

OSHA Compliance in the Workplace

May 8 2023 // Workplace health and safety are top of mind for employers, especially after a recent incident at a Mars factory, where workers fell into a vat of chocolate. To prevent such accidents, it’s important for businesses to...

34% of Workplace Injuries Occur in First Year on the Job: Travelers

May 5 2023 // More than a third of workplace injuries occur during employees’ first year on the job, regardless of age or industry experience, according to a new report from Travelers.In fact, an employee’s time spent in a...

Tennessee Lawmakers Approve PTSD Workers’ Comp Presumption for Firefighters

May 4 2023 // The Tennessee General Assembly has approved a workers’ compensation presumption that post-traumatic stress disorder is work-related for firefighters, joining several other states that have adopted mental health...

Court Upholds Denial of Widow’s COVID-19 Workers’ Compensation Death Claim

May 2 2023 // The widow of a man who died from COVID-19 has been denied workers’ compensation benefits because she failed to prove that the death was work-related.The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York on May 1...

Virginia Workers’ Compensation Review Panel Clarifies COVID-19 Presumption

May 2 2023 // Virginia’s statutory presumption that a COVID-19 disability of a first responder is work-related, which went into effect July 1, 2020, does not require that the employee be diagnosed with COVID-19 on or after that...

OSHA Says Amazon Failed to Provide Injured Workers With Adequate Medical Care

May 1 2023 // The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reports it has found that giant online retailer Amazon failed to provide adequate medical treatment for traumatic and chronic injuries at a fulfillment center in...

Massachusetts Hospital Lacked Workplace Violence Protections, OSHA Judge Finds

Apr 28 2023 // A federal administrative law judge has determined that the manager of Fuller Hospital in Attleboro, Massachusetts exposed employees to workplace violence without adequate protections in 2019, particularly at times when...

Virginia School: Workers’ Comp Bars $40M Suit by Teacher Shot by 6-Year Old

Apr 27 2023 // The Newport News public school board says the $40 million lawsuit filed against it by the teacher who was shot by a six-year old is barred by the state’s workers’ compensation law that is the exclusive remedy...

Negligence Led to Mississippi Grain Bin Death, OSHA Finds

Apr 25 2023 // A South African teenage farm worker who suffocated to death after falling into a grain storage bin would still be alive had a Mississippi soybean farm followed federal workplace safety standards, inspectors with the U.S....

Cal/OSHA Cites Equipment Company, Refers Contractor for Prosecution in Confined Space Deaths

Apr 21 2023 // The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health cited Meeder Equipment Co. of Rancho Cucamonga and referred D&D Construction Specialties Inc. of Sun Valley for criminal prosecution in two separate cases of...

Workers’ Comp Takes Bite Out of Employee Right to Sue Third Party: Pennsylvania High Court

Apr 20 2023 // A Pennsylvania employer cannot be sued for blocking an employee from suing the third party responsible for her workplace injury, the state’s high court has ruled in reversing two lower courts.In a case involving an...

California Workers’ Comp Committee OK’s .03% Higher Pure Premium Filing

Apr 19 2023 // The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California’s Governing Committee voted on Wednesday to authorize the WCIRB to submit a Sept. 1, 2023 pure premium rate filing to the state’s Insurance...

As NCCI Turns 100, a Look at What’s Now, What’s Next for Workers’ Comp

Apr 19 2023 // Editor’s note: This article first ran in Insurance Journal’s sister publication, Carrier Management, earlier this month. It was written by CM Editor Susanne Sclafane. The National Council on Compensation...

California Workers’ Comp Fraud Task Force Uncovers $1.6M in Unreported Payroll

Apr 18 2023 // California private security company owner Luis Burgos, 50, and his former business partner, Sohan Singh, 57, were charged for their alleged involvement in a workers’ compensation insurance fraud scheme after an...

Taking Care of Business: Workers’ Comp Opportunities in a Soft Market

Apr 17 2023 // Workers’ compensation is getting the job done. Premiums are decreasing, claims are stable and retention is high.But even good news can present its own set of challenges, Burns & Wilcox indicated in its webinar,...

WCRI: Injured Workers’ Emergency Room Use Varies Widely by State

Apr 17 2023 // Nearly a third of injured workers in Massachusetts sought treatment for strains and sprains in a hospital emergency room, while in California and Nevada only 10% did, according to a study by the Workers’ Compensation...

Amazon Worker Injuries Dip Last Year, but Higher Than 2020

Apr 14 2023 // Amazon’s total injury rate for warehouse workers took a dip last year, but injuries were still worse than they were in 2020, according to an analysis released Wednesday by a coalition of labor unions.The report,...

California Landscapers Arraigned in Workers’ Comp Premium Fraud Scheme

Apr 13 2023 // Five defendants were arraigned this week on multiple felony counts of insurance fraud after a California Department of Insurance investigation found a landscaping company some of the defendants owned allegedly...

Iowa Court: Husband Eligible for Work Comp Death Benefits Despite Separation

Apr 11 2023 // The husband of a deceased worker is not ineligible for workers’ compensation death benefits merely because he no longer lived with his wife when she died, a divided Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday.In a 4-2 decision,...

Massachusetts Approves 10.2% Workers’ Compensation Rate Cut

Apr 6 2023 // Massachusetts workers’ compensation rates will fall an average 10.2% starting July 1, a considerably bigger reduction than the industry recommended.Insurance Commissioner Gary Anderson signed off on the cut that will...