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By
Dan Pilcher
CACI Senior Vice President
& Chief Operating Officer
Phone: 303.866-9600
E-Mail:
dpilcher@COchamber.com
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Governor
Ritter Signs Firefighters’ Workers’ Comp Bill
The Governor signed into law on May 17th
HB-1008, which will allow firefighters to file workers’ comp
claims that they contracted cancer from exposure to fumes while
fighting fires without proving that the cancer was caused by
their work.
CACI opposed the bill because it creates
the rebuttable presumption that cancer contracted by a
firefighter is deemed to have been an on-the-job disease covered
by workers’ compensation. Although CACI members and the
business community are not directly affected by this bill, it
sets a dangerous precedent that could greatly increase workers’
compensation costs if the legislature decides to extend it to
the private sector.
CACI Urges U.S.
Senator Salazar to Oppose Union-Backed “Employee Free Choice
Act”
CACI President Chuck Berry recently sent a
letter to U.S. Senator Ken Salazar, asking him to oppose S-1041,
the “Employee Free Choice Act.” U.S. Senator Wayne Allard
opposes the bill. Here is the text of the letter to Senator
Salazar:
On behalf of
Colorado employers, the Colorado Association of Commerce and
Industry is urging you to oppose the so-called “Employee Free
Choice Act”, S-1041. Under S-1041 and House companion bill
HR-800, a union would be able to force an employer to recognize
it based merely on a “card check”. More importantly, employers
like us could be forced to give away our employees’ access to a
private ballot election.
This
legislation would overhaul over 70 years of labor law, taking
away employees’ freedom to choose through a federally
supervised, secret ballot election whether to join a union. It
would replace the private, secret ballot election with a system
called “card check,” which allows a union to organize if a
majority of employees simply sign an authorization card.
As you know,
during this “card check” process, employees are often asked to
sign cards that indicate support of a union in front of union
organizers, their fellow employees and, sometimes, their
employer. This is a process that invites coercion,
intimidation, and even threats in the workplace. Employees
deserve privacy and freedom from outside influence when deciding
whether they want to join a union. The National Labor Relations
Board already has strict procedures to ensure fair private
ballot elections, free of employer or union coercion. These
existing procedures are no threat to unions; they lead to swift
and fair elections.
This legislation
would also impose contract terms on private employers through a
process of compulsory, binding arbitration, with government
arbiters establishing binding wages and terms between parties
for two years. It would force employers to submit to contract
terms through compulsory arbitration. This is an
unconstitutional infringement on the rights of private employers
to freedom of contract. This legislation not only interferes
with the democratic process, but also forces private enterprise
to agree to contract terms or face government intervention and,
ultimately, wages and benefit terms that are established by the
government.
For more information about this bill, visit
the Web sites of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National
Association of Manufacturers (CACI is affiliated with both
national business organizations):
http://www.uschamber.com/issues/testimony/2007/070207_cohen_testimony.htm
http://www.nam.org/s_nam/sec.asp?CID=202721&DID=238598
Four Proposals
Caught in the Net of the Blue Ribbon Commission for Health-Care
Reform
Health-care reform will be a top priority
for Governor Ritter and the 2008 session of the legislature.
Joan Henneberry, Executive Director of the Colorado Department
of Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, will
discuss the Ritter Administration’s health-care agenda at the
June 7th meeting of the CACI HealthCare Council. The meeting
will be held from 11:30 p.m. until 1 p.m. at the CACI Office.
Information about the four health-care
reform proposals that have survived review by the Blue Ribbon
Commission for Healthcare Reform also will be presented to the
CACI HealthCare Council. The Commission is known as the “208
Commission” because it was created by SB-208, which the
legislature passed in 2006.
CACI HealthCare Council Chair Ralph
Pollock, a member of the 208 Commission, will discuss the four
proposals, which will now undergo detailed analysis and
“modeling.” Pollock also will discuss the Commission’s process
to develop its own consolidated proposal. The four finalists
are:
- “Better
Health Care for Colorado,” proposed by the Service Employees
International Union
- “Solutions
for a Healthy Colorado,” proposed by the Colorado State
Association of Health Underwriters
- “A Plan for
Covering Coloradans,” proposed by the Committee for Colorado
Health Care Solutions
- “Colorado
Health Services Program,” proposed by the Health Care for
All Colorado Coalition
The complete proposals can be downloaded
from the Commission’s Web site:
http://www.colorado.gov/208commission/
From the Commission’s Web site, here is a
summary of each of the four proposals:
Better Health
Care for Colorado
-
Medicaid-funded insurance subsidies for those under 300
percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL);
- Basic
benefit package through large pool with annual benefit cap
and individuals can use subsidy to purchase
employer-sponsored insurance; and
- Medicaid
reform, including Medicaid managed care, pay-for-performance
and consumer-directed home care.
Solutions for
a Healthy Colorado
- Individual
mandate-all Coloradans must have insurance;
- Guaranteed
issue of a core-benefit plan for individual insurance and
modified community rating; and
- Subsidies
for those up to 250 percent of the FPL.
A Plan for
Covering Coloradans
- Individual
mandate--all Coloradans must have insurance or pay an
assessment if they do not;
- "Pay or
play" for employers--either contribute to employee coverage
or pay an assessment;
- Create pool
of purchasers to negotiate with providers, and require
guaranteed issue, pure community rating and risk-adjustment;
- Subsidies
for those up to 400 percent of the FPL and small businesses
to purchase coverage in the pool;
- Minimum
benefits packages, including dental, mental health,
substance abuse and prescription drugs; and
- Expand
public programs for disabled, elderly, medically needy,
children and parents (up to 300 percent of the FPL) and
childless adults (up to 100 percent of the FPL); merge
Medicaid and CHP+.
Colorado
Health Services Program
- Single-payer
program governed and administered like a public utility;
- Premiums
charged through income tax or payroll deductions;
- Consumers
may choose any licensed health-care provider in the state;
- Benefit
package determined annually; and
- Statewide
patient health-information network, use data to reward
providers for high-quality care and identify training
needs.
CACI Asks U.S.
Senators Allard and Salazar to Support Changes to Employment
Verification Provisions of the Immigration Reform Legislation
CACI President Chuck Berry recently sent
letters to U.S. Senator Wayne Allard and U.S. Senator Ken
Salazar asking them to back changes to the employment
verification provisions of pending immigration reform
legislation. Here is the text of the letter:
As you know,
employers are responsible for verifying the employment
eligibility for all new hires. Current work-site verification
systems call for complex documentation and record maintenance,
requiring human resource managers to determine the authenticity
of more than 29 different types of documents. As such,
considerable resources are devoted to paperwork completion,
auditing records and verifying employment eligibility.
Employers
encounter job applicants who may present false identification
and documents such as phony driver’s licenses or illegally
obtained Social Security cards. This presents may challenges in
verifying employment eligibility for potential new employees
while protecting their identity and preventing any
discrimination in the hiring process.
On behalf of
Colorado employers, CACI would welcome an electronic employment
verification system (EEVS) that is reliable and does not create
additional liabilities for employers who use it. However, we
have significant concerns about the feasibility and workability
of the employment verification proposals that may be considered
by Congress. Employers cannot be expected to detect cases of
fraud the through the paper-based process currently available.
Any electronic employment verification system must meet the
following principles:
- Shared
Responsibility amongst Government, Employers and
Employees—U.S. employers, employees and the federal
government share responsibility for a reliable, efficient
and accurate system to verify employment eligibility.
- Fair
Enforcement—U.S. employers should be liable for their own
hiring decision, not for those made outside of their
control.
- Accuracy and
Reliability—Employer should not be forced to participate
until the government provides assurances that the system is
accurate and reliable.
- Ease of Use—A new
verification system should be easy to understand and it
implement at all work sites. The entire employment
verification process should be conducted electronically to
eliminate duplication and paperwork.
- Deployment of
Latest Technologies—An effective and efficient worksite
verification system should include biometric or other
state-of-the-art identifiers to help make false documents
and identify theft ineffective.
For more information about this issue,
visit the Web site of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce:
http://www.uschamber.com/issues/related.htm?t=021&s=category |
