To the Editor
I am a compensation claims referee (law judge) at the state Workers’ Compensation Board’s Manhattan hearing point.
Thanks for your coverage in the April issue of PEF’s aggressive challenge of the board’s proposed “Managed Adjudication Path” system.
Other recent actions of the board and the effect on PEF members and the injured workers of New York State bear watching. These include:
• Unilateral cessation of downstate conciliation meetings (held by PEF members), despite a continued statutory mandate;
• Ordering inappropriately brief time allotments for multi-witness trials, which will create dangerously tense hearing atmospheres; and
• Mandating that judges summon claimants by initial or by a number, rather than by name. This was rescinded after law judges resisted it.
None of these actions assists law judges in efficiently holding hearings and according due process. They all heighten work and tension for law judges, already operating with little writing time and striving hard to render justice, as are hundreds of PEF members at the board working under difficult circumstances.
STEPHEN L GOLDSTEIN
Fort Lee, NJ
The Communicator Letters policy
We welcome letters to the editor about union issues and events relevant to PEF's diverse membership. All letters are subject to editing for space, fairness and good taste.
Please keep them brief (up to one page, double-spaced or a maximum of 250 words), and please include your name and phone number for verification.
Send letters to thecommunicator@pef.org:
The Communicator
Public Employees Federation
P.O. Box 12414
Albany, N.Y. 12212-2414
Email to Sherry Halbrook, Editor or Darcy Wells, Editor-In Chief
