Pigs... The Lot of 'em

"Screw the workers" bill almost made it out of committee

By Curmudgeon

You want to talk conflict of interest, take a look at this one from Paul Rolly's column in today's SL Trib:

Rep. Mike Morley's attempt to help employers get injured workers kicked off the workers' compensation insurance program got a cool reception from a state advisory committee overseeing workers' compensation issues.

The Spanish Fork Republican [of course --- Curm], who is a construction company owner, brought his HB384 to the Utah Labor Commission's Workers Comp Advisory Committee for a favorable recommendation to the Legislature, but only got a 5-5 vote Monday.

Employer-based groups backing the bill have clashed on the issue with advocates for the working class who oppose it. The bill creates avenues for companies to avoid liability if certain workers get hurt on the job. Morley's construction industry, by the way, is one of the industries most prone to injuries on the job.

His bill would make ineligible for workers' compensation benefits or disability payments an injured employee who was convicted of a crime, like being in the country illegally, for example. (The construction industry hires a lot of undocumented workers, by the way.) The proposal flies in the face of five Supreme Court decisions in other states, the latest being in South Carolina, where the court held such a law would encourage employers to hire undocumented workers since they wouldn't have the burden of insuring them because they wouldn't be eligible for workers' compensation.

Morley's bill also would allow a company to fire ''for cause'' an injured worker getting workers' compensation benefits at the time. That counters a 2006 Utah Supreme Court decision that said La-Z-Boy could not fire a worker while she was getting workers' compensation payments for injuries on the job.

The Gilded Age is alive and well and living in the Utah Legislature. If this passes, a company could hire a construction worker, and if he's injured on the job and gets workman's comp [which his employer has to contribute to], the employer can look back over his record, discover he's been late to work a couple of times, and fire him "for cause" and thus no longer have to pay a dime to cover his injuries.

These people are pigs. Flat out pigs. And this "screw the workers" bill almost made it out of committee. 5-5 vote. Just one more "yea" and it progresses.

Pigs. The lot of 'em.