Workers Comp Board gets back to business
AUGUSTA – In a 12-pen signing, Gov. John Baldacci inked into law Thursday changes to the workers compensation system in Maine that he said would put behind bitterness and acrimony that’s lingered for years.
“We’re able to reform the operation and make sure both injured workers and business are being better served for the future,” Baldacci said, writing a few letters of his name with each pen and later handing the pens to the people who helped with the bill’s passage.
The law, which took effect immediately, changed the Workers Compensation Board from eight members to six and named the board’s executive director – former Lewiston Mayor Paul Dionne – as chairman and the board’s seventh, tie-breaking, member.
It should mean faster results for injured workers in Maine and a more stable environment for businesses.
Three members will continue to represent management, picked by the Maine Chamber of Commerce, and three will continue to represent labor, picked by the Maine AFL-CIO.
Paring down the board shouldn’t be hard. One labor member from Lewiston quit last month and one management member’s four-year term expired two years ago.
“This is really a historic moment,” said Baldacci. “Maine is going to be an inviting state. It’s not going to be one mired by controversy and shutdown.”
Workers compensation insurance has been mandatory here since 1974. All businesses pay for it, with a few exceptions for agriculture and one-person shops.
Among other things, the board controls how long financial benefits are given to injured workers and how many people get lifetime benefits, both of which affect premium rates to businesses.
Since 2001, the board has been divided over whether to extend benefits, over budget issues, over the appointment of hearing officers and over who to elect as chair.
A Portland attorney last year tried to have the entire board declared incompetent because of its divisions and the delays it has caused.
“I can assure all of you that the board will be striving for reconciliation, for common ground,” said Dionne, the executive director since 1996. He predicted: “I will probably never have to break a tie.”
Dionne, an attorney, served as Lewiston mayor from 1980 to 1984. Along with his new role, he’s been invited to Baldacci’s weekly cabinet meeting with commissioners and department heads, a seat at the table that the Workers’ Compensation Board has never had.
He has a number of issues to work on when board meetings resume April 20, among them how to approach five hearing officer appointments at the end of the year.
Hearing officers act as judges in disputes between insurance companies and injured workers over money, bills or getting an old job back.
In December 2002, the board split on whether to reappoint or fire two hearing officers, and they lingered on with pay until last October. Meanwhile the system slowed down.
The caseload at the end of 2002 was 1,324 and the average formal dispute took 7.2 months to resolve, Dionne said. The caseload has increased by 400 and resolution is now taking two months longer.
Buddy Murray, commissioner of the Department of Professional and Financial Regulation, said new board members and an executive director picked by Baldacci should be in place by fall.
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