By Christopher D. Vanderbeek
Missouri businesses have kicked off 2012 with a legislative measure that is intended to effect comprehensive reform with regard to Missouri workers’ compensation law. The business-backed measure is the coordinated response of Missouri businesses to many recent issues that have surfaced on the state’s legal landscape.
One major issue, the depletion of Missouri’s Second Injury Fund (SIF), arose gradually.
Other issues arose much more suddenly. Specifically, two recent Missouri cases flipped Missouri’s workers’ compensation system on its side by respectively providing:
(a) that an employee can sue a co-employee in civil court for the co-employee’s negligence in causing a workplace injury, and
(b) that an employee can sue his or her employer in civil court for a work-related occupational disease (e.g. carpal tunnel syndrome).
Prior to these court cases, it was believed – and, Missouri businesses argue, the Missouri legislature intended – that the sole venue for a claim based on a work-related injury was the workers’ compensation system.
Missouri businesses have responded by throwing their weight behind SB 572. The bill proposes a plethora of amendments to Chapter 287 of the Missouri’s statutory code, which is informally known as the Missouri Workers’ Compensation Act. Included are several amendments to Section 287.120, otherwise known as the “Exclusivity Clause.” This section was recently cited in the case of State ex rel. KCP & L Greater Missouri Operations Co. v. Cook in support of the argument that employees have the right to sue their employers in civil court for work-related occupational diseases.
Some highlights of the proposed bill:
- Prohibition of occupational disease claims outside the workers’ compensation forum
- Prohibition of negligence-based injury claims against co-employees
- Elimination of a $40-per-week benefit paid to injured workers out of the SIF
- Elimination of benefits paid by the SIF to uninsured employers
- Prohibition of all claims for permanent partial disability (PPD) against the SIF
- Prohibition of all claims by employees not legally entitled to work in the US
- Elimination of benefits for employees who become incarcerated
SB 572 was introduced by Senator Tom Dempsey of the 23rd District of Missouri (St. Charles County). The bill is currently being considered by the Small Business, Insurance, and Industry Committee and was initially presented to the committee on January 10, 2012.
Posted by Attorney Christopher D. Vanderbeek. Vanderbeek is involved in the evaluation and defense of workers’ compensation and other insurance claims, protecting the interests of employers and insurers.
01/16/12 4:33 PM
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