Next from our partners
at the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism,
workers' comp claims in Wisconsin
and whether injured workers are being denied
by the state Labor and Industry Review Commission.
A commission stacked since 2013 with Scott Walker appointees.
Dee Hall is managing editor
at the Center for Investigative Journalism.
Thanks very much for being here. - Thanks for having me.
- Why did you start digging into this?
- This is part of an overall investigation that we have been
doing called "Broken Whistle." We're looking at the state of
whistle-blowing in Wisconsin.
And we're also looking at Scott Walker's efforts to rid out
waste, fraud and abuse in state government.
And what we're finding is it's somewhat of an uneven effort.
And there may be some collateral damage there.
- What's an example from your reporting of workers' comp
of a case that was denied?
- So we looked at-
we featured a case of Richard Decker.
He had worked for 36 years at Kohler Company
making toilets there,
was proud, was a hard worker,
worked a lot of overtime and weekends.
And he - in 2010 he was hit on the head by an 80-pound toilet
and knocked out.
He attempted to go back to work,
but he had ongoing symptoms, dizziness.
He's developed a stutter.
He is exhausted.
He's got a lot of pain.
And so he filed for workers' compensation
and ultimately he was denied.
- And on the basis of?
- So what happened in his case and happens in many cases is his
doctors, his personal doctors, came forward and said,
"We think that he is, in the end, permanently disabled,
fully and permanently disabled."
The self-insured company, Kohler,
hired its own experts to say that,
"No. This is really-- he healed a long time ago
and he should be able to return to work."
- Did your reporting find that the Walker Administration
rejected workers' comp claims
more than in prior administrations?
- It was a difficult thing.
We were looking to see whether there was some imbalance
because there were predictions back in 2013 when
all three of the commissioners were Walker appointees
that perhaps employers would have more favorable rulings.
There's a local attorney who did a study and he found that
in fact between mid-2014 and mid-2016 that that was true
in his assessment.
He looked at every single case that was decided
and found that overwhelmingly when decisions were reversed,
they were reversed in favor of the employer.
- How does Wisconsin compare to other states in that regard?
- I'm not sure about that.
Each state has its own workers' comp program.
We were one of the first workers' comp programs in the
country over 100 years ago.
And so it's called the "Grand Bargain,
" and it is that if someone is injured at work,
rather than assigning blame and everybody getting their --
calling their lawyers in and suing,
what you're supposed to be able to do as an injured worker is
rely on your workplace to take care of you and of course then
the employers rely on you being honest about your symptoms
and the effects of your workplace injury.
So for most people in our system it works that way.
It really does.
But as it turns out, for some people,
especially in these very high-cost cases
like the Decker case,
they feel that they were unfairly treated.
- So what kind of recourse does someone like Mr. Decker have,
having been denied?
- His case first went to an administrative law judge
who declared that he was permanently and fully disabled.
But then it was appealed to
the Labor and Industry Review Commission.
From there you can go to the circuit court,
but their attorneys apparently advised them that
they would probably not win.
- Takes us back a step, who pays into workers' comp?
- So the workers-- so the employers get insurance
for workers' compensation and it depends--
How much they pay depends on their claim history
and the type of business that they are.
And so it's in businesses' best interest to keep the claims down
because then their premiums are down.
So they are required, most businesses are required
to be paying into the system.
- So with that said, do businesses in Wisconsin regard
Wisconsin as friendly, you know, open for business in this way?
- Well, I think that that was the prediction and I think that
this one particular study - again,
this is only one study and this was done by a person who
represents injured workers.
He used to represent companies and employers,
but now he represents exclusively injured workers,
so there will probably be some people who will say,
"Well, he's biased."
But he said he tried to look at things from both--
because he's been on both sides of these cases,
to look at them as neutrally as he can.
And there were several that he said really just broke his heart
because he felt they were so wrongly decided.
- Has there been response and reaction from this commission or
from the Walker Administration?
- So the commission has a new chairperson and she issued a
statement saying that there is no ideal proportion of
pro-employer or pro-worker decisions.
Every case should be decided on its merits individually and that
to try to go about and prove that the commission is tilted
one way or the other really is not useful.
So she essentially says you have to judge each case individually
and this particular look at it doesn't do that.
- All right. Well, Dee Hall, thanks for your reporting.
- Thanks for having me.
- Look for the Center for Investigative Journalism
reporting on workers' comp in newspapers
across the state and online this Sunday.