The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled Tuesday companies cannot opt-out of the 2013 workers’ compensation law.
The court’s 7-2 decision says the opt-out act’s provision “creates impermissible, unequal, disparate treatment of a select group of workers,” and is unconstitutional. The ruling comes two years and two days after Dillard’s employee Jonnie Vasquez was injured while working at a Dillard’s.
The Workers’ Compensation Commission threw out Dillard’s denial of her claim earlier this year, The Journal Record’s Dale Denwalt reports:
Dillard’s plan did not cover her claim because it was determined to be a pre-existing injury. The commission noted in its ruling that under the traditional workers’ comp system, pre-existing injuries are covered if aggravated during work. Dillard’s appealed to the Supreme Court. In a decision handing down Tuesday morning, Justice Joseph Watt wrote that the opt-out act doesn’t guarantee all Oklahoma workers the same rights. “Rather, it provides employers the authority to single out their injured employees for inequitable treatment,” he wrote.
Employers still have to provide a workers’ comp plan even if they opt out, and that has to be approved by the Oklahoma Insurance Department.
Read NPR And ProPublica’s Extensive 2015 Investigation Of Oklahoma’s Workers Comp’ Laws
Dozens of companies have opted out since the 2013 law went into effect. Oklahoma employers would also keep their immunity from lawsuits.
According to @oid411, there are 54 companies in Oklahoma with their own comp plans pic.twitter.com/ZHdEKdmkq7
— Dale Denwalt (@denwalt) September 13, 2016
From Denwalt:
“There is little question that (the law) specifically allows the employers creating their own plans to include conditions for recovery making it more difficult for the injrued employee falling within to recover for a work-related injury than a counterpart covered by the (traditional workers’ comp law),” Watt wrote. The court split 7-2, similar to other recent challenges to the 2013 law.
Read the Oklahoma Supreme Court Decision
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