Workplace Injuries

• Firefighter Vulnerable to Hepatitis C Infection

  Ricky Bagolie | July 05, 2006 10:59 PM | 0 CommentsJersey City, NJ

  Firefighters are at risk of contracting Hepatitis C and should get tested to screen for this deadly disease. According to the American Liver Foundation,"Hepatitis C and Risk Factors for Firefighters, In this category we include firefighters, who in the course of their work find themselves in many situations where they may be exposed to blood. The primary route of hepatitis C virus transmission...

• New Jersey Workers' Compensation Claims Decline

  Ricky Bagolie | July 02, 2006 11:29 PM | 0 CommentsJersey City, NJ

  The New Jersey Division of Workers' Compensation (NJ DWC) reported a 5% decline in the filing of claims in 2005 (37,248) from 2004 (39,212). The statistic also represents a 31% decline from 1992 (54,164).Is it safer work sites, less jobs or more injuries going unreported? Maybe a little of each. I do suspect, however, that there are thousands of undiagnosed and unreported injury, illness and...

• Pesticides In The Fields May Lead To Defects in Workers' Babies

  Ricky Bagolie | June 06, 2006 8:23 AM | 0 CommentsJersey City, NJ

  According to the Palm Beach Post, a report by North Carolina health officials has strengthened the hypothesis that exposure to pesticides helped to cause severe deformities of three babies born to migrant farmworkers who worked for a Florida-based tomato growerThe report said, "Data indicate a plausible association between possible pesticide exposure and the limb deficiencies." Investigators...

• Brooklyn Jury Awards Asbestos Victims $16.4 million

  Ricky Bagolie | May 05, 2006 1:13 AM | 0 CommentsJersey City, NJ

  A Brooklyn jury awarded three retired Long Island Railroad (LIRR) workers a total of 16.4 million dollars for lung disease caused by their exposure to asbestos while working for the railroad. Following an eight day jury trial before the Honorable Lawrence Knipel, Albito Velez-Zapata of Massepequa Park, New York was awarded 8 million dollars, Lincoln Aguirre of Deer Park, New York was awarded 6...

• OSHA Cites 14,000 Employers for High Worker Injury Rates

  Ricky Bagolie | May 04, 2006 9:39 AM | 0 CommentsJersey City, NJ

  Is your job safe? Approximately 14,000 employers have been notified that injury and illness rates at their worksites are higher than average and that assistance is available to help them fix safety and health hazards, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced. OSHA wants these jobs to clean up their act.Check to see if your job is on the list. The 14,000 sites are...

• Death on the Job: Up for the First Time in 10 Years

  Ricky Bagolie | May 03, 2006 12:28 AM | 0 CommentsJersey City, NJ

  New Jersey workers, stay safe. The AFL-CIO's annual job safety report reveals that for the first time in a decade, the national job fatality rate was up from the previous year. In 2004 (the latest year for which Bureau of Labor Statistics figures are available), 5,703 workers died from workplace injuries, compared to 5,575 the previous year, reports Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect. The...

• Medicare Raises Threshold to $25,000 for Setaside Review

  Ricky Bagolie | May 02, 2006 11:48 PM | 0 CommentsJersey City, NJ

  It will be a little bit easier to settle a New Jersey Workers' Compensation claim now that Medicare has raised it's threshold level of review from $10,000 to $25,000. Medicare's April 25, 2006 Memorandum regarding their setasides. Although it is only a threshold for review and not a safe harbor, it will allow clients on Medicare to settle cases with values under $25,000 without waiting to see...

• New Jersey Supreme Court Holds Injury at Dinner Compensable

  Ricky Bagolie | April 30, 2006 10:10 PM | 0 CommentsJersey City, NJ

  The NJ Supreme Court (5-2) held that an employee was within the course of his employment when injured while eating dinner in New York City following the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. Since all the bridges and tunnels were closed and the employees could not return to New J ersey, the Court indicated that the deviation was minor and at the direction of his employer and was,therefore,...

• Workers Killed in Construction Collapse

  Ricky Bagolie | April 12, 2006 6:58 PM | 0 CommentsJersey City, NJ

  In another tragic example of improper training, two workers and a doctor sitting in traffic were killed when a scaffold collapsed at construction site in Boston, sending a 10-ton platform plummeting 13 stories onto a busy street. According to The Boston Herald The report, submitted by the general contractor, revealed the accident was apparently caused by laborers who tried to dismantle the...

• Help - my job will not authorize an MRI

  Ricky Bagolie | April 10, 2006 10:45 PM | 0 CommentsJersey City, NJ

  What do you do when you need an MRI to help evaluate your injury but the job will not authorize the test? You need to fight them in workers' compensation court.New Jersey Workers' Compensation Law gives nearly complete control of medical care to the employer. Consequentially, injured workers often find themselves being shortchanged on the nature and extent of treatment and testing.There is...