MISSOURI WORKERS' COMP NEEDS A GOOD OVERHAUL

Missourians have heard a lot in the past two years about reform of the state's workers' compensation system. Unfortunately, legislative action hasn't followed all the reform talk.

Most residents have never filed a workers' comp claim and know little about the issue, which is one reason why legislators haven't been too eager to address problems with the system. But the obscure nature of the system has enabled abuses that have turned workers' compensation into an employer-funded welfare system. That must change.

At a recent workers' comp conference in Cape Girardeau, Robert T. Johnson, the employer representative on the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations Commission cited only a few examples of what is wrong with the system:

-- A worker who hurts his wrist in a pickup volleyball game at a company picnic settles a workers' comp case for more than $20,000, although the wrist wasn't broken and wasn't injured at the workplace.

-- A domestic dispute between two workers culminates in fisticuffs. A court approves a $12,000 workers' comp suit, although the injury wasn't work-related.

-- A drywaller falls from a scaffold, but doesn't file a claim until 18 months later, six months after he went into business for himself. Now his former employer -- and current competitor -- must fork over permanent disability payments of $261 a month. The "disabled" worker wasn't in court the day the suit was approved. He was on a ladder putting up drywall.

One thing that would help reduce such cases is for the legislature to redefine accidents as they pertain to workers' comp claims. Also, there needs to be a way to keep many of the cases from entering the arena of lawyer-to-lawyer negotiations. A survey by the National Council on Compensation Insurance Inc. found that lawyers become involved in 81 percent of Missouri workers' comp cases, compared with 40 to 50 percent lawyer involvement in other states.

One of the problems that will be more difficult to address is how rising medical costs affect workers' compensation claims. And yet it shouldn't be too difficult to decipher that a drywall installer who continues to install drywall isn't permanently disabled.

Workers' compensation reform should again garner the attention it deserves in Jefferson City.

Cape Girardeau and Perry counties face an interesting dilemma. With unemployment rates consistently below 4 percent, both counties are economically healthy.

But a robust economy can't expand without new industry and the jobs it brings. Thus the second blade to the two-edged unemployment sword: New workers are tough to find.

Economic development officials in the area are taking steps to attract more workers into the area in an effort to help area businesses expand and to recruit new companies. The real shortage is in entry level and unskilled positions, where it generally doesn't pay to move from one entry level position to another with a new company in town.

The labor shortage has become so serious in Perry County that industries there are recruiting workers in other areas, including Southern Illinois, where many counties are plagued by double-digit unemployment.

Local industrial recruitment and economic development officials are considering similar efforts here. One official suggested advertisements might be placed in high-unemployment communities, followed with job fairs to introduce potential workers to area businesses wanting to expand.

But analysis of unemployment rates can be tricky. Alexander County, Ill., has one of the highest unemployment rates in the region, but has a meager pool of workers to begin with. The same is true in Pulaski County, Ill., where 10 percent unemployment translates into only about 300 unemployed workers.

In contrast, Jackson County, Ill., has a much lower unemployment rate but a much larger work force. More than 4,000 unemployed workers live there. Even in Cape Girardeau County, with only 3.7 percent unemployment, there are 1,300 unemployed.

However they are found, workers need to be added to our local work force. After all, the more industry grows, the more there are opportunities for entry-level workers to advance to mid-level and skilled jobs. And the higher wages they take home translate into more cash for the local economy.