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The Business Council strongly opposes S.3922-A (Savino) / A.9718 (Bronson), the effect of which, while perhaps not explicit, would undermine the balance adopted as part of the state's 2017 comprehensive workers' comp reform budget legislation and its intent to increase benefits for the most injured workers while lessening the financial burdens of the workers' comp system on employers. The 2017 reform carefully balanced increases in the availability of benefits for workers with the need to control costs.
Now, but a year after the 2017 reform took effect, this bill looks to weaken the reforms and relax attachment to the workplace standards for all employees on temporary workers’ compensation. The 2017 reform had already done away with the requirement for people with permanent injuries, a reform that had a logic, unlike the current bill.
This drastic change to current state law would stymie any attempt by employers to control fraudulent or unnecessarily long duration temporary benefits. It would have no impact on those workers with a debilitating permanent injury and would only act to increase costs in the system. This bill would severely disrupt any attempt to control the costs of New York's comp system by undercutting the program reforms included in the 2017 budget and would ultimately result in program cost increases and an entirely uncompetitive state workers' compensation system.
For these reasons The Business Council opposes the enactment of S.3922-A (Savino) / A.9718 (Bronson).