Washington State Employers "hit jackpot" With Workers and Unemployment Compensation "Reform"

[Better Believe It]

Employers 'hit jackpot' with workers' comp reform, leader says
Not only did lawmakers avoid leaning on businesses this year to solve the state’s financial woes, they put the brakes on a couple of big trains speeding toward employers.
By JORDAN SCHRADER; Staff writer
May 31, 2011

Not only did lawmakers avoid leaning on businesses this year to solve the state’s financial woes, but they put the brakes on a couple of big trains speeding toward employers.

Nearly $5 billion in cuts to projected spending came without new taxes. Amid the budget morass, the Legislature found time to stop a jump of more than one-third in unemployment insurance taxes on employers and ease the upward climb of the insurance premiums they pay in case employees get hurt on the job.

All of it was done with bipartisan backing – and most of it came at the expense of workers, the state’s biggest labor group asserts.

“They hit the jackpot there,” said Johnson (State Labor Council President Jeff Johnson) whose group fought tooth-and-nail against the idea of letting workers settle their injury claims for some faster cash. “The dollars lost by workers are gained by business. I suppose if I were them I’d be dancing in the street.”

Read the full article at:

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/05/29/1685522/employers-hit-jackpot-with-workers.html