The American Federation of Government Employees union has raised concerns about the latest federal worker injury compensation initiative, saying it could pressure agencies to find ways to cut the costs of the program while not doing enough to avoid claims in the first place by making the federal workplace safer.
The initiative, created by a recent presidential memo, calls on agencies to reduce total injury and illness case rates in general and lost-time cases in particular; improve the timeliness of overall claims in general and wage-loss claims in particular; and increase the rates at which employees return to work within 45 days of an injury and in cases of moderate to severe injury or illness.
The initiative, dubbed PEER (for Protecting Employees, Enabling Reemployment), is largely similar to initiatives of the Obama and Bush administrations that have expired.
“Even though the goals are not new, what concerns our union is what the employing agencies will do to meet the goals,” the union said. “Managers will be pressured to improperly deny leave and force workers to return to work too soon. Pressuring injured employees to return to work before they are physically or mentally prepared often results in re-injury, causing employees to be out of work even longer.”
The memo does not add money to agencies to reach the goals, AFGE noted, saying that the best way to reduce claims is to increase safety inspections, especially at facilities with high rates of job-related injuries such as federal prisons.
It also noted that the prior initiatives were overseen by a joint labor-management advisory council that has since been disbanded, leaving implementation solely in management’s hands.
See also, How Workers’ Compensation Works
