Workers’ Compensation Opt Out Systems — A Return To The Jungle (UPDATED)
In 2015, I wrote a post about the lobbyist push to enact “opt out” systems for workers’ compensation benefits. You can read more about workers’ compensation opt out systems in that post here.
Opt out systems are terrible for injured workers. In my prior post I explained several ways in which large employers would opt out of workers’ compensation benefits and write their own plans to exclude valid work-related injuries. Opt out systems allow large companies to treat workers as expendable commodities. Our families and neighbors deserve better.
The State of Texas has long had an opt out work comp system. I could write, at length, about unjust treatment of injured workers under that system. That’s where the lobbyist push began and spread to other states. Corporate lobbyists began to push similar proposals in other state legislatures. This led to the State of Oklahoma also enacting an opt out system. While not yet proposed in Alabama, similar proposals were attempted in nearby states, including Tennessee.