WORKERS' COMP REWRITE DONE UNIONS CLAIM GOVERNOR'S NEW REGULATIONS DEFY SPIRIT OF BIPARTISAN DEAL.

Byline: David M. Drucker Sacramento Bureau

New regulations designed to save businesses billions of dollars in workers' compensation insurance costs were revealed Thursday, prompting union officials to accuse Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of playing the Grinch just days before Christmas.

The new rules, written under the bipartisan agreement that Schwarzenegger reached with Democrat and Republican legislators last spring, will change the factors determining how much money permanently injured workers receive as compensation for their injuries. The administration dismissed accusations that the changes are an attempt to cut injured-worker benefits while nobody is looking.

``Under the new standard, the most severely injured will get better benefits,'' said Victoria Bradshaw, who heads the state Labor and Workforce Development Agency.

The new system will result in some workers getting less money for their injuries, but these workers are not severely disabled and are still physically able to earn a living, she said. This was exactly the intention of Senate Bill 899, the bipartisan workers' compensation reform bill passed by the Legislature and signed by Schwarzenegger in April, according to Bradshaw.

Labor leaders disagree, and they are accusing the governor of purposely pushing through the regulations two days before Christmas - traditionally a time when few people monitor what happens in Sacramento. They say the changes ignore the spirit of the legislation and will leave some injured workers entirely without benefits.

``Working people are learning that this governor is not a man of his word,'' Art Pulaski, executive secretary and treasurer of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, said in a published statement. ``He will break any promise he makes, and he will wait until they're not watching to do it.''

To take effect Jan. 1, the new regulations eliminate the practice of having only courts determine how much money permanently disabled workers are awarded. Currently, an injured worker will typically hire a lawyer, who will sue the employer on his client's behalf, with the level of compensation then decided in court.

The new rules still allow injured workers to go to court. But now there is what Bradshaw calls an objective formula to determine what a permanently disabled worker is entitled to.

Doctors approved to serve as examiners of workers' compensation patients will review injuries and use American Medical Association standards to classify the extent of the disability. Those who are determined to be ``severely'' disabled will get more monetary compensation than in the current system, Bradshaw said.

Those whose injuries are less severe - especially those who are capable of returning to work - could get less than their counterparts in the past. A host of factors will go into these rulings, including future earning power, age and occupation.

``This new permanent disability rating system will reduce costs within the workers' compensation system,'' the California Chamber of Commerce president, Allan Zaremberg, said in a press release.

Administration officials say the only losers under the new system are workers' compensation attorneys and doctors popular with those attorneys.

Union officials and others who represent injured workers, however, say the new regulations will compromise workers' health and leave them without the financial resources to get by after an injury has left them unable to work.

``For those who work hard and are injured serving California, this is a devastating blow. It means that more injured workers will lose their homes, their cars and their hope, because they won't be able to survive on these pitiful disability benefits,'' wrote David Schwartz, the president of the California Applicants' Attorneys Association.

David M. Drucker, [phone]

david.drucker(at)dailybulletin.com