Worker's Compensation

Position

News

• Livermore construction company to pay $3.9 million to settle suit by state attorney general
  Aug 25, 2010 — Tri-Valley Herald
  Country Builders Inc. and Attorney General Jerry Brown. Brown filed suit against the company in Alameda County Superior Court in March, claiming it falsified payroll records to hide underpayments, deliberately misclassified workers to reduce the company's workers' compensation premiums and violated state wage laws, according to a news release sent by Brown's office. Weldon Offill, owner of Country Builders, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Country Builders has agreed to pay a...
• CalPERS loan just latest budget-balancing gimmick
  Aug 23, 2010 — The Sacramento Bee
  The idea fell flat when the deal ran into legal problems, adding to the state's deficit. In other cases, the state has borrowed heavily to help solve its budget problems. Senate Democrats previously wanted to shed about $3 billion to $4 billion in annual costs by making counties more responsible for local services. The problem is, the permanent changes are controversial.
• The Sacramento Bee, Calif., Dan Walters column
  Aug 23, 2010 — The Sacramento Bee
  ...decree. The rules have immense effects on workers' benefits, employers' costs, insurers' profits and the incomes of workers' comp lawyers and medical care and rehabilitation providers. As a perennial political issue with high-dollar impacts, it supports a clutch of lobbyists who specialize in representing the myriad stakeholders in the system. And the axiom among those lobbyists is that something big happens in workers' comp about once a decade. The axiom's underlying...
• Group urges 29.6% hike in California workers' comp rates
  Aug 12, 2010 — The Sacramento Bee
  Business lobbyists said workers' comp expenses were helping drive companies out of California.
• Governor warns of hike in workers' comp rates
  Aug 11, 2010 — The Sacramento Bee
  Dale Kasler Aug. 11, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Gov. Last week its actuarial committee recommended a roughly 30 percent increase, said bureau spokesman Jack Hannan. Poizner will issue his own recommendation at a later date.
• Companies band together to cut workers' comp costs
  Aug 8, 2010 — Ventura County Star
  Richard McArthur, the store's manager, estimated he's paying nearly 20 percent less than what the giant State Compensation Fund charged to cover his 12 employees. The Woodland Hills-based company is senior broker for the Home Improvement Self-Insured Group. We try to find only the best in class." Workers' compensation insurance costs should run 2 to 5 percent of payroll, Scanlon said.
• The Bakersfield Californian Lois Henry column
  Jul 24, 2010 — The Bakersfield Californian
  He left Kern owing the state $354,572. That's right, he gets a public pension. Back then, the Kern retirement agency freely gave us 15 years worth of the following data: Retiree names, types of retirements and years of service. Yes? Anyhoo, the city and CalPERS, back in 1994, at first gave us the runaround too.
• EDITORIAL
  Jul 17, 2010 — The Fresno Bee
  Jul. 17, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- We face yet another controversy regarding off-reservation businesses owned by Indian tribal governments. Mainstay is trying to claim that it and by extension its non-tribal clients shouldn't have to pay federal and state unemployment insurance taxes like other private firms.
• Program gives retrained people a way back into the job market
  Jul 17, 2010 — Ventura County Star
  About 18 months ago, she returned to the area, expecting to teach again. Instead of hiring, however, her old school was laying off teachers. McGuire said she's finding that many employers would like to hire -- it just depends on whether they can afford it.