Washington State Injury Ranking Challenged

The Washington Department of Labor & Industries (DLI) is challenging a study that found the state ranked among the highest rates of work-related injuries.
A study published last week by the Atlanta, Georgia-based injury law firm Bader Scott found that Washington was the second-most dangerous state for workers — averaging 3.9 occurrences per 100 employees — based on reports of nonfatal work-induced injuries and illnesses.
DLI spokesperson Matt Ross said the dataset used — the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Survey of Occupational Injury and Illness (SOII) — isn’t the best measure of state-to-state comparisons, and the firm should have used BLS’s Census of Fatal Occupational Injury (CFOI).
He said that CFOI data shows Washington consistently has one of the lowest workplace fatality rates in the country, fewer than 2 deaths per 25,000 workers.
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Demand for OSHA to publish a draft heat regulation this summer got louder on Monday as a coalition of unions, environmental groups and public health advocates filed a petition urging the Federal Emergency Management Agency to add heat waves and wildfire smoke to the list of disasters that can trigger agency aid to states and households.
The petition is being spearheaded by Washington, D.C.-based Center for Biological Diversity.
A major disaster classification would force OSHA to make heat worker protections a priority, according to multiple media reports.
OSHA is expected in the coming months to propose the first-ever US rule requiring employers to protect an estimated 50 million people exposed to high temperatures while working.
Business groups have opposed such a rule.
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A Florida appeals court has rejected $14,000 in workers’ compensation payments previously awarded to an injured minor league pitcher for the Detroit Tigers’ Class-A Minor League team.
The lefty pitcher injured his throwing shoulder in 2018. He filed a workers’ compensation claim for temporary total disability and the team paid 70 weeks of benefits at $144 per week, for a total of $10,170.
In 2022, he petitioned for benefits of at least $24,360, claiming the team had miscalculated the earlier benefits and a compensation judge earlier awarded Austin Sodders indemnity benefits of $349 per week, more than twice as much as Sedgwick Claims Management had sought.
The state appeals court said that the comp judge had abused his discretion by skirting statutory requirements and rejecting the terms of the player’s contract.
It sent the case back to the comp judge to reset Sodders’ benefits based on the lower average weekly wage.
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