Workers' comp bill slowed by filibuster

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Senate spent eight hours Thursday debating legislation that would tighten eligibility requirements for injured workers to receive benefits under the state workers' compensation system.

Republican supporters say broad interpretation of the existing law by courts has opened the system to abuse and led to dramatically increased costs for employers, helping to stifle economic growth in Missouri.

Democratic opponents counter the bill would make it more difficult for workers to be compensated for legitimate workplace injuries and that the bad investment decisions by insurance providers and a lack of competition in the insurance market are the true culprits of rising workers' compensation premium costs.

The Senate will meet today in a rare Friday session to continue work on the bill, which the House of Representatives has already passed.

Senate Democrats have filibustered priority Republican legislation sought by pro-business groups. Last month it took 30 hours of debate spanning three days to crack a filibuster on a bill to limit civil lawsuits against businesses.

The present measure would require a workplace incident to be the dominant factor contributing to an injury for it to be covered by the worker's compensation system. Currently, a workplace accident must merely be a substantial factor in the injury.

It also removes existing wording that requires liberal interpretation of the law and instead mandates the statute be impartially construed.

When the system was last overhauled in 1993, state Sen. John Louden, R-Ballwin, said lawmakers thought they had established a clearly defined standard for evaluating claims.

"That standard has basically been eliminated by judicial activism," said Louden, the bill's Senate handler.

One provision would overturn court interpretations that workers who take home company cars are entitled to benefits if involved in an accident while driving to and from work. That situation would no longer be considered an on-the-job injury.

Louden, an insurance broker, said a workers' compensation policy he recently wrote for an Arkansas company would have cost 30 percent more had the company been based in Missouri.

Pro-business groups say the expense of workers' compensation coverage was a major contributing factor in the loss of 77,000 Missouri jobs last year. Labor unions opposed to the bill dismiss that notion and point to economic factors unrelated to workers' compensation.

Senate Minority Floor Leader Ken Jacob, D-Columbia, said changes in the law are needed but not those suggested by Republicans, who control both chambers of the legislature. Jacob, an attorney who has represented workers in injury cases, said some companies throw up roadblocks to employees getting the benefits to which they are entitled.

"The workers' compensation needs to be reformed but not to the benefit of employers," Jacob said. "It needs to be reformed to the benefit of workers."

State Sen. Maida Coleman, D-St. Louis and a Sikeston native, said the measure should be dubbed the "Employers Limited Liability Protection Law."

Of the many amendments offered by Democrats, only two were adopted.

Under existing law, a worker loses 15 percent of his benefits when alcohol or drug use is found to have contributed to an injury. Louden's original proposal called for a 50 percent loss.

An amendment put on the bill by Jacob would deny the worker any benefits but only with solid proof of intoxication as determined by a blood test.

The other change would clarify that employers and insurance companies, in addition to workers, can be prosecuted for workers' compensation fraud.

According to the Missouri Department of Insurance, average workers' compensation insurance rates rose 2.8 percent in 2001 and 7.3 percent last year. However, the department's data show rates at the end of 2002 were 13.7 percent lower than in 1993, when the last major reform legislation took effect.

The bill is HB 321.

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