Fate of Iowa Values Hinges on Workers’ Comp Laws
Quad-City Times
DES
MOINES (AP) — A former IBP meatpacking plant worker is at the center of
a high-stakes debate over how Iowa treats injured workers.
The
question that Jose Venegas’ workers’ compensation case raises is
whether businesses should get “credit” for past disability awards to
workers when calculating how much money employees should receive for a
new injury.
Business
and GOP legislative leaders say the Venegas case allows workers to
“double dip” — or get paid twice for the same injury.
“Iowa
has an unfair system that requires employers to pay and pay again,”
said Bob Wersen, chairman of the Iowa Association of Business and
Industry, a Des Moines-based business group.
Organized
labor leaders and attorneys representing injured workers say Iowa has
for decades seen each worker injury as separate, with each disability
cutting a worker’s earning power and ability to get a job.
Republicans
tried to reverse the ruling in massive legislation that included
creation of the $503 million Iowa Values Fund. Gov. Tom Vilsack’s
line-item-veto response to the legislation resulted in a state Supreme
Court ruling a year later that sidelined the state’s high-profile
economic development fund.
(more)
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