Workers’ Comp - Commitment Needed from Employers
July 1, 2006

Since 2003, workers’ compensation insurance premiums have dropped 42%, translating to
roughly $ 9.5 billion. Add in the savings to self-insured businesses and government entities,
and the savings approach $15 billion! That money is being returned to the state’s economy in
the form of new jobs, increased production, and more opportunities for all Californians. 

Measuring the success of our workers’ compensation system solely on the basis of costs,
however, is a mistake. If workers’ comp is to deliver quality medical care, adequate
permanent disability payments, and meaningful opportunities for injured workers to return to
work, there is still much to be done. But just because there is work to be done does not mean that it has to be done in Sacramento. We have seen enough laws and regulations to fill a small library over the past two years. It is time for employers and employees to make this system work.

Employers have the tools to keep their workers’ compensation costs under control. That
includes negotiating the best price for insurance in an increasingly competitive private
marketplace. But there is more to managing workers’ comp costs than taking advantage of a
price war among insurance companies. The best way to keep costs down is keeping injuries
from happening in the first place. That requires a commitment to safety that begins with a
company’s CEO. No one benefits when an employee is injured at work. A safe workplace is
everyone’s priority, and everyone needs to do his or her part to make it happen.

Accidents will happen, and some of those may be serious. Making certain an injured
employee gets the immediate medical treatment he or she needs - and employers are required to provide by law - is critical both for the employer and the injured worker. For too long, California’s litigious and bureaucratic workers’ compensation system was characterized by
unnecessary delays, whether in providing medical treatment, determining disability, or
returning the worker to work. Those days are gone, and it is up to employers and insurers to
make sure they remain in the past.

Ideally, injured workers are able to return to the workforce, whether at their regular job or
modified or alternative work. This is the third part of making the workers’ compensation
system meet its goals. A safe workplace reduces accidents and injuries. Prompt medical care
minimizes the effect of the injury to the worker. And making sure that an employee has a job
after he or she has recovered from the injury is the ultimate goal of the system.

The workers’ comp system cannot be a "job killer" for either employers or workers.
California’s workers need to have the confidence that, if they are injured, there will be a job
they can perform waiting for them when they are ready. No new laws or regulations are
needed to make the workers’ compensation system function as it was intended. This only
takes commitment from both employers and labor. Where that commitment exists, good
things will happen.