Document 10LN66d7mEa9Zk8oN1wEypeem

LEON S. SENIOR GENERAL MANAGER COMPENSATION INSURANCE RATING BOARD Pershing Squire Building i;s PARK WFM f NEW 'i ORK TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT submitted to the MEMBERS OF THE COMPENSATION INSURANCE RAT DIG BOARD on Thursday, January 5C, 1936. Nineteen hundred and thirty five has proven to he the most strenuous year in the history of Workmen's Compensation in this State. There was not a single dull moment in the entire period. Difficulties arising from new legislation have created problems which have been only partially solved thus far. The final answer is rtill in the distant future. The security funds to protect claimants in cases of insolvency; the rule for deposits of commuted values in the Aggregate Trust Fund; the all-inclusive occupational disease Act; and the new procedure for medical care and treatment of injured workers, all bristle with questions that will require extensive consideration. In this Annual Report to our members, I shall attempt to review briefly the efforts made during the past year towards reaching correct solutions. OCCUPATIONAL DISEASE ACT On September 1, 1935 Paragraph 28 was added to Section 3, Subdivision 2 of the Workmen's Compensation Law providing cover for any and all occupational diseases in any and all employments enumerated in the Law. A separate bill dealing only nith silicosis and similar dust diseases was passed by both Houses of the Legislature. A great deal of time and study was devoted to this bill by the Staff and the several committees of the Board during the early months of the year on the assumption that it might become law. (Twonty-Socond Annual Report) 11- Subway Construction:- A symbol (a) rating plan was substituted for the original weight of 15 assignod to Codes 6254 and 6259, tho rate for each contract to bo detomined by extending tho estimated labor cost for rock excavation at a rate corresponding to an 0. D. weight of 45, the labor cost for earth oxcavation at a rate corresponding to a weight of 10 and dividing tho total estimated premium so obtainod by tho total ostimated labor cost oxcluding supervision and similar general payrolls. Rato Credits for the Use of Approved Dust Control Apparatus:A credit of 25# from the occupational disease rates and por capita charges for classifications 1605 "Rock Excavation" and 550Q "Street or Road Construction - Rock Excavation" was approved for the use of certain dust control equipment and a similar credit was allowed in connection with tho symbol (a) plans for Code 6705 "Railroad Crado Crossing Elimination - all operations" and 6010 "Water Works - construction of pumping stations", etc. where rock oxcavation enters into the calculation of the avorage rate. Incidental Foundry Operations:- This tern was defined with greater precisonoss. Incidental Sand Blasting:- A rule was incorporated in the occupational diseaso section requiring tho entire payroll of all employees ongnged in sand blasting operations where any sand or quartz is used as well as tho entire payroll of all employees not physically separated from such operations to be assignod to Code 1741 "Silica Grinding". CLASSIFICATION AND RATING COMMITTEE This Committee afforded forty statutory hearings to employers, many of then involving appeals from decisions of tho Staff Committee. In half of these cases tho action of tho Staff was confirmed; in the ronaining half the applications of the petitioners were cither granted, or partial relief was afforded, or a different form of treatment was authorized by the Connittoe. Nine of the hoarings involved applications for complete or partial relief from occupational disease charges. The Gypsum Association set forth its views on the dust conditions in its industry in a fifty-nine pace briof and supplemented its printed statement by tho oral testimony of experienced men in tho industry and such silicosis exports as Doctors L. U. Gardner and Homer M. Sampson of tho Saranac Laboratory. Tho Associ ation succoodod in convincing tho Committee that tho amount of free silica dust present (Twenty`Socond Annual Roport) -12 In the mining and processing of gypsum was negligible and that the specific 0. D. rate for this industry should be eliminated except for the making of sanded wall plaster. The Marble and Limestone Industries were represented before the Committee by Mr. Henry D. Sayer, former Industrial Commissioner and by Dr. Anthony J. Lanza, Assistant Medical Director of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and one of the country's foremost exports on silicosis. On the basis of the evidence presented, the Committoe set up a new classification for these risks and reduced the 0. D. weight from 90 to 10. The Radiator and Heater Industry of New York was represented by its principal members and succeeded in convincing the Committee that certain departments in plants of this character are not exposed to dust hazard, justifying the Committee in reducing the occupational disease weight from 35 to 30. Another hearing involved an application to restore the fonner rule which permitted the combination of experience, under a single compensation policy, of contractors performing construction work for common carriers. The decision of the Staff denying this application was confirmed on the ground that such procedure is inconsistent with the general practice of rating each contractor on the basis of his own experience. In another case a subterfuge practiced by a group of laundry operators designed to avoid the proper premium charges by the issuance of a single compensation policy in the name of the promoter of the project was exposed by the Committee. The carrier was ordered to cancel its policy and the Cormittoo directed that each laundry must bo covered under a separate compensation policy. Appeals woro taken from decisions of tho Committee to the Insurance Dopartnont in the following casos, with the rosults indicated: Increase Duo to Law Amendments. The appellant contonded that tho 4$ rato increase effective July 1,