Key Votes: Driving Businesses Out of Kentucky
SB 56 and HB 333 - Outdated Medical Guidelines Are Better For Organized Labor
SB 56 and HB 333 are two verions of the same legislation that would roll back the state's standard to the outdated 5th edition of the American Medical Association's "Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment" because organized labor thinks the new edition is less lucrative valid. So in the pocket of organized labor that they're willing to ignore modern medicine: Senator Ray Jones (D-Pike, #30), Representatives Brett Yonts (D-Muhlenberg, #78), Dwight Butler (R-Breckinridge, #36), Tommy Turner (R-Pulaski, #26), Robin Webb (D-Carter, #69)
HB 392 - Double Penalties for Misclassification of Employees
HB 392 creates potential for double penalties in the construction industry where the Office of Workplace Standards and a contractor disagree on which workers are 'independent contractors' and which are 'employees'. The bill creates not only restitution, but additional civil penalties, and overall simply makes it harder and more risky for two people to agree to do business with each other in the Commonwealth because the state may not agree with the way they have arranged to do business. Representative Sannie Overly (D-Bourbon, #62)
HB 455 - Destroying the Workers Compensation System
The workers compensation system exists to be an orderly way for injured workers to be compensated for injury and to provide businesses with clear obligatons to care for injured workers. It is a mediation system designed to reduce the delay, uncertainty and costs of going to court. In exchange for the relinquishment of the original civil court claim, workers are relieved of the burden to prove the fault of the employer. HB 455 would open the workers compensation system up to litigation before any administrative hearing. While we're sure the author thinks the bill leaves the old system in tact, there will no longer be any reason to be forthcoming or agreeable in workers compensation claims because it can be challenged in court anyway. The system designed to reduce litigation will no longer serve a purpose. Sponsors: Representative Rick Nelson (D-Bell, #48) or Representative Tim Firkins (D-Jefferson, #95).
