Posted by John Byrne at 1:35 p.m.
City Hall today announced it will track workplace injury claims more closely in an effort to prevent city workers from fraudulently claiming workers compensation.
Under the policy, city departments will be required to report monthly on the status of injured employees to the City Council Finance Committee and the Budget Department. Each department will be required to designate a manager to oversee the process of returning employees to work, according to a Daley administration news release.
Employees will have to report their medical treatments regularly. Failure to do so could be cause for disability benefits to be terminated, the city says.
Budget Director Eugene Munin said the new policy is meant to get injured employees back on the job "in some capacity" as soon as possible, "either at full duty or performing other limited tasks."
"Our efforts to improve the duty disability system are not punitive to employees who have been legitimately injured on the job and cannot work," Munin said. "We are making these management improvements to ensure that able-bodied workers get back to work as soon as possible, and that taxpayers are better protected from fraud."
Federal authorities subpoenaed city records in late 2006 related to
workers’ claims of being hurt on the job. The subpoena followed an October 2006 Sun-Times series examining the city’s worker’s compensation system. Among its findings, the newspaper said workers with political clout claimed workplace injuries at a rate exceeding that of other professions tracked by the U.S. Labor Department.
Employees injured while on duty are eligible to receive two-thirds of their salary up to a state-established limit while they are unable to work, as well as get coverage of all approved medical costs. The new city policy mandates that workers deemed unable to return to work show evidence to the department manager that they undertake at least 10 job searches per week while collecting disability.