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By Ken Dixon
HARTFORD -- The recession in Connecticut has resulted in claims for job-related injuries nearly doubling over the last
four years, Hearst Connecticut Newspapers have learned.
Initial claims, called first-injury reports by the state Workers' Compensation Commission, totaled 50,841 in the fiscal
year that ended June 30. Four years earlier, the total was 26,992 initial claims.
John A. Mastropietro, of Watertown, who as commission chairman supervises 15 at-large commissioners who hear thousands
of contested Workers' Comp cases each year, says that while some of the increase is the result of a change toward
electronic filing of claims over the last 18 months, the majority of the rise is due to the economy.
During recent interviews, Mastropietro said that some employees who had been working with injuries will file claims
later, after they are laid off by their companies.
"Contested claims can come from employees who may have done something to themselves on the job, but were possibly
hesitant to file a claim because of concerns that employer might be in financial trouble," he said. "Six months later,
the employer downsizes and at that point the employee might file a claim because they've been laid off. It may very well
be legitimate on the part of the employee."
Employers who, during better times, will let Workers' Comp claims go and let their insurers pay without opposition are
also fighting now.
"As the economy gets bad there are a lot more contests," Mastropietro said in a recent interview. "The employers are
obviously concerned about their ability to stay in existence, so they pay more attention to employee illnesses and
injuries." The recession has also affected the insurance industry, which is now more likely to join in contesting
workers' claims, Mastropietro, said.
"Insurance companies have downsized in recent years enormously, thereby leaving fewer claims adjusters, who are now
handling a greater volume of cases," he said. "So there's a tendency to not move on the part of those making decisions."
The state's Workers' Compensation Commission, which dates back to 1913, holds a variety of hearings when injured
employees and their bosses don't agree.
There were 51,601 first-stage, informal hearings in 2008-09, compared to 42,783 in 2004-05, according to commission
annual reports to the General Assembly that are filed each September.
While that's a gauge of the commission's relative workload, Mastropietro said the first-injury reports give a better
idea of the number of workers claiming job-related injuries each year.
In early 2008 the commission moved to electronic filing of initial claims, which has helped immensely in allowing
commissioners to keep up with their workloads and hearing in the commission's regional offices.
Mastropietro said he's proud that even with the higher numbers, initial claims get a preliminary hearing in less than a
month.
"We do not have a backlog in hearings," Mastropietro said last week. "I have a rule that we try to adhere to that when a
new claim is filed, when the first request is made, it needs to be heard with 28 days of the day it's filed. I read a
report this morning that said we're averaging 28.75 days in all 8 districts." During the 2004-05 fiscal year, there were
116 cases that were dismissed; and 159 dismissals during the year that ended June 30.
Richard A. Cerrato, a Bridgeport lawyer who specializes in Workers' Comp claims, agreed in a recent interview that
commissioners are keeping up with the case flow.
"I can't tell you that I've noticed any delays in getting hearings," said Cerrato, who also travels to regional Workers'
Compensation Commission offices in New Haven, Waterbury and Stamford for clients. "The fourth district, in Bridgeport,
is one of the best in getting hearings in as little as three weeks except in emergency situations. They're handling them
reasonably efficiently." Under state labor law, when a worker is hurt on the job and reports it to their employer,
management is required to make an injury report.
If the injury or job-related illness is serious enough to keep the worker off the job for a day or two, the report must
be sent to the company insurer, which in turn will notify the Workers' Compensation Commission.
In the case of factory workers who break their arms, they go to the emergency room, or if it's less critical the employer
gets to choose a treatment facility. The worker is treated and a treatment and rehabilitation plan is created.
"The insurers should be paying the bills associated with care," Mastropietro said. "If they're contesting it, they send
in a denial form and that triggers us to schedule a hearing for the individual, then we try to figure it out." Since
each claim is different, each contested case varies in length of time. "Every case takes its own course," he said.
If an employee is unable to work at either his or her usual job or elsewhere in the company within his or her medical
restrictions, then insurers issue benefit checks that total about 75 percent of his or her weekly pay.
Hearings are held in an informal, but court-like system, with three levels of hearings: informal, pre-formal and formal.
Informal is the most free-flowing venue, which commissioners schedule about 15 minutes apart. Since commissioners double
book those hearings as many as 40 a day can be completed.
"We simply sit at a conference table with both parties and give them a suggested resolution based on our feelings and
the parties are not bound by what we say," Mastropietro said. "Ninety five percent of the hearings are solved on that
level." The pre-formal hearings are like pretrial hearings, with more pointed purposes, including scheduling orders and
depositions. Formal hearings include court reporters and written briefs from both sides, but keep relaxed rules of
evidence. Written decisions from commissioners become binding.
Appeals may be submitted to the Compensation Review Board, a three commissioner panel. Further appeals go to the state
Appellate Court.
The Workers' Compensation Commission, with commissioners appointed to five-year terms by the General Assembly, reports
that while there were 66 workplace fatalities in 2004-05, there were only 27 in the last fiscal year.
First-Injury Reports Indicate Increase in Workers' Comp Claims 2003-04 31,773 2004-05 26,992 2005-06 28,160 2006-07
33,122 2007-08 47,671 2008-09 50,841.
* Source Connecticut Workers' Compensation Commission
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Poor economy forces workers to seek help.