Masonry Magazine March 1980 Page. 28
WORKERS COMPENSATION
continued from page 27
Longshore Act, private insurers have almost totally withdrawn from the market. The insurance companies believe that act has become uninsurable.
S. 420 Impact No Better.
The enactment of federal legislation such as S. 420 will have the same result on state laws. It can be argued of course there is nothing in the federal legislation to prevent the states from correcting the abuses in their laws. However, the political realities are such that these expectations are but idle dreams.
To bring the state laws back into balance will require extensive cooperation between business and labor. Such cooperation is not likely to be achieved unless some quid pro quo can be reached. But, why should labor cooperate?
If Congress forces the states to acquiesce to benefit levels labor has dreamed about-without simultaneously requiring the states to correct abuses of the system-is it realistic to expect labor to cooperate with employers at the state level to correct such abuses?
There is no evidence before the House Subcommittee on Compensation, Health and Safety that labor is prepared to voluntarily support or cooperate in a reform program which will bring the Longshore Act within some form of economic stability. Why should labor do this at the state level if it is not willing to do it at the federal level?
Split Responsibilities.
S. 420 also takes a very unrealistic approach to compensation legislation generally. It splits benefit responsibilities between state and federal governments. The federal government takes responsibility for the establishment, determination and distribution of partial disability. This makes little sense.
The function of income benefits in the compensation system is generally recognized as being replacement for lost wages. Such losses are replaced under different benefit categories as temporary total benefits, temporary partial disability, permanent total disability and permanent partial disability. Still, all these four categories have but one purpose in mind-wage replacement.
It is difficult enough for any one government body to attempt to bring these different benefit programs into balance. It is totally unrealistic to expect to ever achieve balance if the responsibility for these different categories is split among two government entities. It really makes no sense from a public administration standpoint.
Critical Time Approaches.
The state workers compensation system has come a long way from what it was when examined in 1972 by the National Commission. The effect of state legislative action has been to create serious cost pressures. It is easy to say businessmen will always complain when they have to pay more in benefits or insurance premiums.
But there is strong evidence the cost of workers compensation is fast approaching a level of non-affordability in the states. This level has already been reached under the Longshore Act.
It is not in the public interest to pursue at this time a new, vast and expensive liberalization of our workers compensation laws until we have learned to control the abuses under the present system.
There is nothing in any proposed federal legislative programs directed at controlling these abuses. Instead, such programs will critically impact on our state compensation systems and will render them economically non-viable.
If enacted by Congress, federal workers compensation legislation will lead quickly to a complete break-down of our state laws. Certainly, this is not in the interest of labor, industry or the public.
Architect Louis Kahn
Honored Posthumously
The International Union of Bricklayers & Allied Craftsmen recently honored the late Louis I. Kahn, one of America's greatest architects, with a posthumous award on behalf of the masonry industry.
The award, which consisted of contributions from masonry industry groups totaling more than $21,000, was accepted by Dr. Peter McCleary, dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Architecture where Kahn taught. The money will be used to assist the university in establishing the Louis I. Kahn Architectural Collection consisting of some 15,000 of Kahn's drawings, sketch books and correspondence. They will be preserved at the university for scholarly use.
Kahn, generally regarded as the greatest American architect since Frank Lloyd Wright, died on March 17, 1974.
Every so often, a loose tongue leads to a few loose teeth.