Question

Apply workers’ compensation management regulations and concepts to the following workplace scenario: You are a newly hired environmental safety and health professional for a midsized manufacturer of widgets. You currently have three manufacturing facilities in three separate, but geographically close states. Because of unprecedented growth in the widgets market, your company decides to build another factory. One out of the hundreds of indicators the executive staff is looking for is which one of their current states they operate is most employer friendly. In other words, which state treats employers and employees the same when it comes to regulatory requirements? Complete a research paper that compares and contrasts the differences between the Oregon state and two other adjacent states. In your paper, you should

discuss the differences and similarities between workers’ rights in the three different states (e.g., definition of employee, wages paid, weeks of temporary disability, etc.),

· identify and explain the commonalities in the fundamental laws of the workers’ compensation system in the three states, interpret the resources that are available for employers in each state (e.g., monthly courses taught, written guidance, employer rights, etc.),

discuss the types of coverage available to employees in each state, and

argue which state is more employer friendly from an employer’s perspective when it comes to administering a workers’ compensation program.

Be sure to use the tools provided by the U.S. Department of Labor, Division of Federal Employees’ Compensation (DFEC) web page. The webpage is located at https://www.dol.gov/owcp/dfec/regs/compliance/wc.htm. This page provides a link to the workers’ compensation board for each of the 50 states as well as the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and Puerto Rico. In addition to this resource, you should use a minimum of two other sources. All information from these sources must be cited in APA style.

Answer 1

Workers' compensation or workers' comp (formerly workmen's compensation until the name was changed to make it gender-neutral) is a form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee's right to sue his or her employer for the tort of negligence. The trade-off between assured, limited coverage and lack of recourse outside the worker compensation system is known as "the compensation bargain." One of the problems that the compensation bargain solved is the problem of employers becoming insolvent as a result of high damage awards. The system of collective liability was created to prevent that, and thus to ensure security of compensation to the workers. Individual immunity is the necessary corollary to collective liability.

While plans differ among jurisdictions, provision can be made for weekly payments in place of wages (functioning in this case as a form of disability insurance), compensation for economic loss (past and future), reimbursement or payment of medical and like expenses (functioning in this case as a form of health insurance), and benefits payable to the dependents of workers killed during employment.

General damage for pain and suffering, and punitive damages for employer negligence, are generally not available in workers' compensation plans, and negligence is generally not an issue in the case.