Workers Comp Reform

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NY Legislature Must Act on Workers' Comp Reform

Workers? Comp Costs Are Killing NY Businesses

NY: 2nd Highest Workers? Comp Costs in Nation

Gov. Proposed Real Reform ? Legislature Must Act in 2006

Costing Jobs Across the State; Hurting Workers & Businesses

New York State?s broken workers? compensation system is costing jobs, hurting businesses, treating injured workers unfairly, and is in desperate need of reform, according to the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, the New York Workers? Compensation Action Network (NYCAN), the Business Council of New York State, Inc. (BCNYS), and business leaders from Western New York and across the State.
 
?There may be no concern that unites our members more than the extraordinary workers? compensation costs in New York State,? said Andrew Rudnick, President and CEO of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership. ?The burden of workers? compensation is cited by small businesses, large manufacturers, high-tech and life sciences companies alike as a top reason they find it so difficult to thrive in Buffalo Niagara.  Every dollar our members spend on the nation?s second-most-costly workers? comp system, is a dollar they aren?t spending to expand, hire more local people and positively impact the local economy.  The system needs reform, and needs it now.?

 ?The workers? compensation system in New York is at a critical point,? Elliott Shaw, Director of Government Affairs for the Business Council of New York State, said.  ?The comp crisis is real and getting worse.  It?s fundamentally undermining our competitiveness.  We are losing jobs in the private sector and we are losing opportunities to create new jobs.  Reform is happening in other states.  It needs to happen in New York and needs to happen this year.  The Legislature has two months until they recess, they must not leave Albany without passing real workers? comp reform.?

 ?New York?s workers? compensation costs for employers are second highest in the nation,? Joe Edwards, NYCAN Coordinator, said.  ?The cost of workers? compensation is one of the leading causes that businesses point to when they are forced to eliminate jobs or create new jobs in other states.  The Governor has proposed meaningful and realistic reforms and now the Legislature must do its part and make those reforms a reality.?

New York Businesses Are Paying the Price and It?s Hurting Their Workers

Curtis Screw Company LLC, founded in 1905 and operating in New York, North Carolina and Connecticut, is a leading manufacturer of precision screw machined components and assemblies for a vast array of markets.

?We pay two dollars per labor hour for workers? compensation and every dollar we spend on that is a dollar we can?t invest in the growth of our business,? said John Hoskins, Jr., Government Affairs Liaison for Curtis Screw Company LLC, which pays $1 million annually for workers comp in Buffalo, NY and only $150,000 annually in North Carolina for the same number of employees. 

?The $1 million we pay here goes right into the cost of the components we make.  The less competitive we are, the less people we employ. We want to expand, we want to employ more people, but New York State?s making that much more difficult to do than North Carolina,? Hoskins said.

Dresser-Rand is one of the largest global suppliers of rotating equipment solutions, designing, manufacturing and servicing a wide range of technologically advanced centrifugal and reciprocating compressors, steam and gas turbines, expanders, multiphase turbine separators, portable ventilators, and control systems.  An international company, Dresser-Rand has manufacturing plants around the globe including plants in Olean, Wellsville and Painted Post, New York, employing more than 2,200 New Yorkers.

?Our workers? compensation costs in New York are significantly higher than in other states? said Ted Meadows, Dresser-Rand?s Director of Labor Relations for North American Operations.

?As a worldwide company, we are constantly looking at our cost of operation in factories around the world.  The extraordinarily high cost of workers? compensation in New York State is certainly a major factor for us when we do our cost analysis and creates a competitive disadvantage for our company and our employees,? Meadows said.

Just the Facts
 
- Governor Pataki has proposed key reforms ? S.6461/A.9561.
 
- At $16,114, (up from $11,739 just three years ago) New York?s average workers? comp claim is the second highest in the nation ? 86 percent above the national average.  (Source: National Council on Compensation Insurance.)

- Average workers? comp premiums in New York are 15 percent above the national average. (Source: National Council on Compensation Insurance.)

- Permanent partial disability (PPD) claims account for only 15 percent of claims in New York, yet they account for 81 percent of the aggregate cost of workers? comp.  New York is one of only nine states that does not limit the duration of PPD awards.

?The Governor has proposed the kinds of workers? compensation reform that New York desperately needs.  NYCAN, the Business Council, the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, chambers of commerce, and businesses from this region and across the state will be working to urge the Legislature to enact these reforms this year.  We will have a very visible grassroots, public relations and advertising campaign to ensure that lawmakers hear the message that workers? comp reform is all about jobs for New Yorkers,? Edwards said.

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The New York Workers? Compensation Action Network (NYCAN), founded in 1996 as a part of New York First, is a coalition of businesses, chambers of commerce and other associations committed to fair and reasonable reforms to New York?s workers? compensation system.  NYCAN?s website is www.fixworkerscomp.com.

The Business Council of New York State, Inc. (BCNYS) is the largest broad-based organization representing the interests of large and small employers throughout the state.  The Business Council is made up of thousands of member firms, employing more than 1.2 million workers.  The Business Council?s website is www.bcnys.org.

The Buffalo Niagara Partnership is made up of 2,500 local employers, working together, for growth in the Buffalo Niagara region.  The Partnership offers its members products and services to help them save money and increase revenue, and advocates, everyday, for an improved business climate.  The Partnership?s website is www.thepartnership.org.