Update: Chicago Tribune gets it wrong about construction safety bill

Bravo!  Finally the Tribune publishes someone who understands the importance of HB 2094.   

While we commented on how wrong the Tribune's view of the Illinois Construction Act of 2008 is and submitted a letter to inform them.  Philip Corboy, Jr. did the same in a letter that was published today in the Trib.  In particular he is right on the money when he wrote:

This legislation is not about lawyers.

It's about construction workers making it home safely and being able to sit down at the dinner table with their families.

Right on! 

This legislation is all about protecting workers and making people accountable in the civil justice system.   This is important legislation that should be passed.   

Maybe my letter will get published too, but I am not holding my breath. :-)

Comments

[STeve]

That is laughable. HB 2094 is about a jackpot for PI lawyers and a strain on the already hurting consumer marketplace, business owners, ect. Thing is, the employee is already covered under the Workers Compensation and this is just about double dipping...its about money and that is all.

[Jason Held]

While it is true that many workers are covered by the Workers Comp System - this system has numerous problems and does not capture many of the day laborers that the construction industry continues to hire to cut labor costs.

While there are many things to point as failures in the Workers Comp System - including it is out of date, people are not fairly compensated and because of special influence pressure does not accomplish what it was set out to do - I just wont to give an example of how "fair" it is: If a concert pianist lost one of her fingers on the job she would be compensated the same amount as a janitor (who could continue at her profession) from the workers comp system.

Now I don't know about you, but that doesn't seem like a just system to me-- lumping all cases into categories and then paying them out based on a "meat" chart of injuries. Just like it does not seem fair that a construction worker who is injured b/c someone wants to save money and forgo some safety measures and the worker is injured. Workers need to be able to hold these people accountable. Which by the way the Workers Comp system cannot do, since it is a no fault system.

This legislation is about workers not the people who represent them.