Frank L. Gallucci III, managing partner of Plevin & Gallucci Co., L.P.A., one of the largest law firms in Ohio representing plaintiffs in workers’ compensation cases, took issue today with Ohio Governor John Kasich’s characterization of the recent reduction in employer premiums paid to the state’s workers’ compensation system as “another billion back for employers and worker safety.”
“The recent announcement that the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation is looking to reduce premiums collected by 8% is a bit troubling,” stated Gallucci. “While we applaud the efforts to save employers money and make Ohio a stronger state, we have already seen the current administration assist employers to the amount of $1.9 billion. What we have not seen is assistance for the injured workers who continue to suffer.”
“We need to have a system where the focus is on the injured worker,” Gallucci continued. “While I do not advocate that the BWC overcharge employers as they have done for many years, we need to remember that this compromise system is the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, not Bureau of Employer Protection. It is time for this administration to start putting some of the billions of dollars saved to work for the injured.”
“Let’s protect the firefighters who contract cancer,” Gallucci suggested. “Let’s get surgery approved for the worker who has had all conservative options fail; let’s get rid of treatment delays; let’s decrease the paperwork that drives doctors out of the system; let’s stop reducing the benefits of widows and minors; let’s stop taking advantage of the permanently disabled; let’s help those the system was intended to help, the injured.”
