Workers Compensation

In 1980, an administrative judge called one teacher's classroom a "blackboard jungle." But since then, even critics of the Compton Unified School District admit that working conditions have generally improved. But union officials still contend that the school system's 3,161 teachers and employees struggle against the worst job environment in Los Angeles County--witness the district's mounting cost for workers compensation, which has doubled in the six years since.

California employers are paying a bit more for workers' compensation insurance. New rates filed by the top 100 companies, accounting for 96.7% of the California market, increased by an average of 2.8% in January, said state Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. California's largest workers' compensation company, the government-run State Compensation Insurance Fund, will keep its rates basically flat this year. The company controls about 15% of the state market and serves as insurer of last resort for small employers.

Peter "Navy" Tuiasosopo had only worked as a Los Angeles County probation officer for 180 days when he left work after suffering two on-the-job injuries in 2000 -- straining his shoulder closing a gate and hurting his ankle breaking up a fight among youths. During the next seven years, Tuiasosopo, 45, collected workers' compensation as he jetted to Hawaii to act in movies and television shows that paid more than $38,000. In 2007 he sued the county, alleging probation officials failed to help him return to work, and earlier this year the county settled the lawsuit for $125,000.

  A burgeoning underground economy is costing California about $7 billion annually in lost tax revenue and undercutting companies that play by the rules. That has state officials vowing to crack down on employers who pay their workers cash under the table to avoid payroll taxes, workers' compensation insurance and other government mandates. Agencies including the Employment Development Department and the Contractors State Licensing Board increasingly are coordinating efforts to target suspected scofflaws.

Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi on Thursday approved a 6.7% hike in workers' compensation rates--far less than the industry sought--while renewing his call for comprehensive reform of the system that provides benefits for workers who are injured on the job. "There are simply too many pigs feeding at the trough," Garamendi said. "We must stop the special interests from unjustly profiting from an increasingly costly workers' compensation system."

California employers will get an estimated $50 million to $60 million in extra relief under a workers' compensation rate decision announced Thursday by Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi. Garamendi's decision extends the reach of a 7% workers' compensation rate cut approved by the Legislature. He called for the cut to apply to policies already in force on July 16, when lawmakers acted.

Court of Appeal to Review Workers' Comp Decision: A sweeping ruling that threw out workers' compensation claims filed by a group of 10 laid-off International Rectifier employees will be reviewed by the California Court of Appeal. The original decision last April by Long Beach workers' compensation Judge Frank S. Falero sparked controversy by accusing the workers, their lawyers and doctors of conspiring to commit insurance fraud.

The crowded field of workers compensation insurers in Southern California has become a little more competitive with the creation of a new firm in the giant network of subsidiaries under Continental Corp. in New York. The new subsidiary, Workers Compensation & Indemnity Co. of California, has started operating from offices in Brea to try to grab a share of the $6-billion workers compensation market in the state. Employees for the carrier had a bit of a head start, though.

Two oil rig workers who fell 80 feet from an offshore oil platform and then filed workers' compensation claims in Ventura County against their employer were indicted Tuesday on charges of staging the accident. Federal prosecutors accuse John Michael Costello, 34, of Pismo Beach and Gary Grant Mangler, 35, of Lompoc of staging the Sept. 8, 1992, incident at Platform Irene in the coastal waters of San Luis Obispo County so that they could collect millions of dollars.

Revealing new charges of public corruption in California's workers' compensation program, the agency that regulates the trouble-plagued system said Friday it has fired three employees for allegedly taking bribes from a Southland firm that did business with the state. The investigation that led to the criminal charges follows the agency's recent probe of misconduct in California's workers' compensation courts.

In an effort to streamline operations and cut expenses, California's largest workers' compensation insurance company plans to lay off about a fourth of its 6,800 employees. Tom Rowe, chief executive of the government-controlled State Compensation Insurance Fund, said Thursday the company is about 30% overstaffed and will fire as many as 1,800 civil service workers by the end of June. It's the first mass layoff at the San Francisco firm since the 1930s. "The positions being eliminated are in areas where business processes have changed significantly enough that work has been substantially reduced," Rowe said in a companywide email.

The Internal Revenue Service has opened an investigation into the handling of bonds and employee compensation packages in the financially struggling city of Bell, according to sources familiar with the ongoing probe. At least two IRS agents have been assigned to the investigation and have been in and out of Bell's red-brick city hall since February, one source said. "They're sifting and combing through everything," the source said. The sources requested anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the investigation.

Many California doctors are making large profits by prescribing and directly dispensing custom-made "compounded" drugs to people with work-related injuries, according to a new Rand Corp. research report. Use of these pricey drugs ? mostly painkilling creams for patients who might need an alternative to pills ? has soared in recent years, driving up costs in California's workers' compensation system and alarming some legislators, who are now looking to rein in their use. Rand was hired to do the study after lawmakers asked the California Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation to look into the compounded-drug trend.

Nearly four years ago, state authorities forced out top-level officials at the government-run workers' compensation insurance firm, revamped the operation and launched a criminal investigation into reports of conflicts of interest, self-dealing and misuse of as much as $1billion. Today, that probe involving the State Compensation Insurance Fund continues in silence as prosecutors face possible statutes of limitations that would bar some criminal charges and civil lawsuits. The last publicly known activity occurred 18 months ago, when a search warrant was issued on a former board member in Redding, about 150 miles north of Sacramento.

A nonprofit agency that has managed taxicabs at Los Angeles International Airport for years has been recommended for another LAX contract, although a 2007 city audit found that the company had mismanaged money and violated state workers' compensation laws. After evaluating competing proposals from two companies, the staff of Los Angeles World Airports recommended Friday that airport commissioners at the Jan. 11 meeting award a new five-year concession contract to Authorized Taxicab Supervision Inc. An evaluation panel concluded that the firm was the most qualified bidder.

After the invasion of Iraq, the U.S. military discovered that rebuilding the country and confronting an insurgency required a weapon not in its arsenal: thousands of interpreters. To fill the gap, the Pentagon turned to Titan Corp., a San Diego defense contractor, which eventually hired more than 8,000 interpreters, most of them Iraqis. For $12,000 a year, these civilians served as the voice of America's military, braving sniper fire and roadside bombs. Insurgents targeted them for torture and assassination.

California's top insurance regulator is expected today to file a lawsuit to try to stop the governor from selling $1 billion worth of business at a state-run workers' compensation insurance company. Last month, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature approved the proposed sale to raise money to partially plug a $24-billion hole in the state budget. But Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner vowed to fight it. "This is bad politics; it's illegal, and I'm going to stop it," said the wealthy former tech entrepreneur from Silicon Valley, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor in 2010.

What changes will California's new package of workers' compensation reforms bring? Its fundamental goal is to cut most of the bloated system's costs, and then to use those savings to provide relief for employers and higher cash benefits for injured workers. But history suggests that the complicated array of provisions in the bills passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Pete Wilson on Friday won't yield dramatic savings, at least not quickly.

The family of a 52-year-old Huntington Memorial Hospital nursing assistant who had a stroke a week after she was attacked by a patient has filed a claim in a state workers' compensation court, saying she was unfairly denied medical coverage. Amelia Mendoza, who has four adult children, had a massive stroke April 20, about 2 1/2 hours after being turned away from Huntington Memorial Hospital's occupational health clinic because it was too busy, her family's lawyers said Tuesday.

Peter "Navy" Tuiasosopo had only worked as a Los Angeles County probation officer for 180 days when he left work after suffering two on-the-job injuries in 2000 -- straining his shoulder closing a gate and hurting his ankle breaking up a fight among youths. During the next seven years, Tuiasosopo, 45, collected workers' compensation as he jetted to Hawaii to act in movies and television shows that paid more than $38,000. In 2007 he sued the county, alleging probation officials failed to help him return to work, and earlier this year the county settled the lawsuit for $125,000.