STATE CAPITOL BRIEFS
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE
LOW-WAGE WORKERS PRESS FOR BENEFITS BILLS
Low-wage workers who said they came to the United States and Massachusetts seeking greater opportunities asked lawmakers on Tuesday to intervene and help immigrants like themselves get the benefits they deserve when injured on the job. One construction worker from Ecuador told members of the Committee on Labor and Workforce Development that he had a job as a roofer when he fell 22 feet off a house. His employer, he said, didn’t take him to a hospital and when he went by himself five days later he had significant injuries, but had trouble communicating with the doctor and could not get workers’ compensation for five months after his injury. The workers testified, with the help of a translator, in support of two bills (H 1684/S 976) filed by Rep. Garrett Bradley and Sen. Jamie Eldridge that would increase workers’ compensation for certain low-wage workers and ensure that they have access to a translator and that their insurance covers transportation costs to and from a health care provider. Brian Flynn, senior staff attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services, said many immigrants end up working low-wage jobs with a high risk of injury and get paid by their employers in cash. Flynn said many employers “drag out” the workers compensation claims, and he said workers are often paid workers’ compensation based on average weekly wages that violate minimum wage and overtime laws. The Bradley and Eldridge bills, according to Flynn, would entitle these workers to expedited hearings for workers compensation. “Workers comp for these workers is their only lifeline for support,” he said, adding that the benefits can often be the difference between a workers’ family being evicted or foreclosed upon and keeping their home. – Matt Murphy/SHNS
OFFICIAL: WORKERS’ COMP LOOPHOLE ALLOWING DOUBLE DIPPING
A loophole in state law has allowed three employees in Fitchburg to continue collecting workers’ compensation, along with their retirements, into their 80s, costing the city over $1 million over the past 20 years, a state representative and city official testified. Rep. Stephen DiNatale, who is running for mayor of Fitchburg, brought City Solicitor John Barrett to Boston on Tuesday to testify before the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development in support of his bill (H 1699) to close what Barrett called a “glitch” in the state laws around disability benefits. Barrett said that injured workers who turn 65 and have been out of the workforce at least two years are automatically disqualified for temporary or partial workers’ compensation unless they can prove that would have continued working beyond the age of retirement. That law, however, does not apply to workers receiving “permanent and total” workers’ compensation. The result, Barrett said, is that three workers in Fitchburg have continued to collect disability payments from the city into their 80s. “It’s kind of, if you will, double dipping,” Barrett said. “I believe this was probably an error and was overlooked but what it allows is people to continue to collect 34A benefits well after retirement age.” – Matt Murphy/SHNS
