URGENT ACTION ALERT

URGENT ACTION ALERT – NO ON SB 863 (De Leon)

DON’T REDUCE PERMANENT DISABILITY COMPENSATION
FOR SERIOUSLY INJURED WORKERS!
CONTACT YOUR STATE SENATOR OR ASSEMBLY MEMBER, NOW!
Monday, August 27, 2012

The latest version of the Brown Administration’s proposed changes has been inserted into SB 863 (DeLeon and Solorio) and it is fatally flawed. During the final week of the legislative session, the Brown Administration and the California Labor Federation are pressing legislators to enact a proposal in extreme haste that is flawed. SB 863 DECREASES permanent disability compensation for seriously injured workers who cannot return to work! We must keep up our advocacy on behalf of injured workers. Contact your legislators and union leaders NOW!

These unions have taken a position against the proposal: International Brotherhood of Teamsters, California Public Affairs Council, United Auto Workers, International Association of Machinists

The measure could be voted upon without policy committee hearings during the final week. Please contact your legislators and union leaders and express your strong opposition to the provisions that will harm injured workers:

• The bill eliminates injured workers’ ability to prove lost future earnings and limits any permanent disability rating solely to the AMA Guides.
• The bill gives insurance companies total control of medical care, and all aspects of an injured worker’s medical-legal case.
• Under the proposed legislation, the average compensation for work injuries would be less than $8,000!

The following items that favor injured workers are eliminated:

• Diminished future earnings capacity
• Psychological damage from career-ending work injuries
• Sexual dysfunction damage from work injuries
• Sleep disorder damage from work injuries
• Agreed Medical Examiners can’t determine current need for medical treatment
• Choice of interpreters for non-English speakers
• Medical control of injured worker’s treatment

If you don’t have your legislator’s contact information, find it here: http://www.legislature.ca.gov/legislators_and_districts/legislators/your_legislator.html

Don’t let the horrors of SB 899 be repeated! Contact your state legislator and the proposed bill’s authors Senator DeLeon and Assembly member Solorio NOW.