Article 13 Comm. tackles Workers’ Comp, other issues
Little-known committee works behind the scenes to aid members
By SHERRY HALBROOK
If you are hurt on the job, you’ll be glad to learn PEF and the state have a joint committee on workers’ compensation that is working hard to help you by improving the administration of your contractual benefits.
The Joint PEF-NYS Workers’ Compensation Committee, established under PS&T Contract Article 13, has published a guide for injured workers, among other accomplishments.
The committee resumed its meetings on November 8, 2004, after a long hiatus while the 2003-07 contract was negotiated. PEF members of the committee are Bernie Kahn (chair), Rocco Brindisi, Irene Bland and Barbara Rock. They are aided by PEF Director of Contract Administration Bob Carrothers and PEF Director of Occupational Safety and Health Jonathan Rosen.
Kahn credited an atmosphere of “mutual respect and good faith” at the joint committee meetings with enabling the group to accomplish several tasks that benefit PEF members.
Information you can use
Publication of a Workers’ Compensation Brochure that explains basic rights, responsibilities and benefits under the state Workers’ Compensation Law and PS&T Contract Article 13 tops the list of ways the committee tries to smooth the road to recovery for PEF members injured on the job.
Copies of the brochure should be available from the human resources office at every state worksite and should be given to any PEF members injured on the job. You can find it on the PEF Web site under Health and Safety.
The committee has also made it easier for injured members to identify Workers’ Comp supplement payments on their pay stubs. The supplement is now identified in the left column of the paycheck as “PEF Workers Comp Supp.”
When Kahn learned that PEF members lacked a way to prove they had met the requirement for timely notice of on-the-job injuries by phoning the Accident Reporting System (ARS), he worked through the committee to resolve the problem. Now, the ARS provides a written record to all members who use the system, including an ARS case number.
“In addition to establishing the committee, Article 13 covers time and attendance issues, supplementary pay and mandatory alternate duty assignments,” Kahn said.
And, because of the committee, the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations issued a memo to all state agencies clarifying that under Article 13 they “must” offer alternate duty assignments to all PEF members who are 50 percent or less disabled and have a prognosis of returning to full duty within 60 days.
In the works
Now that the committee is getting up to full speed again, Kahn said it is tackling several priority projects.
It has already identified a need to update and reprint the Workers’ Compensation brochure.
“Because we have had complaints that some injured members did not receive the brochure from their workplaces, we are also discussing how to improve its distribution statewide,” Kahn said.
And PEF has proposed that joint training, for both PEF members and state managers involved in administering the various provisions of Article 13, be provided for them during working hours.
Another important topic PEF has raised is the method of accounting for the workers’ compensation supplement payments and reporting them to recipients.
GOER is checking to see if the amount, rate, and time period can be added to check stubs or if they could be reported by some other method similar to an award notice from the Worker's Compensation Board.
Use it or lose it
Kahn urged PEF members to take advantage of the benefits the committee tries to bring them, because they are only cost-effective when they are used.
“At our meeting last month,” he said, “we learned that the One Card program that allows members to use one card to pay for medications through health benefits or workers’ compensation will be discontinued at the end of this year, because it hasn’t been used enough to justify its continued operation. However, the state is looking for a new. more cost-effective way to provide a similar service.”
To make sure members understand their benefits and take full advantage of them, Kahn said PEF will educate members about their rights under the law and Article 13 and keep them up-to-date on changes through articles in The Communicator and postings on the PEF Web site.
If you have been injured on the job, contact your PEF division’s Workers’ Comp “navigator” or the PEF Health and Safety Department at 1 800 342-4306, ext. 254 for help.
To contact the PEF Article 13 Committee, write to Kahn, in care of the NYS Public Employees Federation, 136 Church St., 4th Floor, New York, NY 10007-2259 or e-mail him at
berniek215@aol.com.
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