Oregon daily emerald., March 07, 1978, Page 8, Image 8

Workers’ comp petitioners need time
By KEVIN HARDEN
Of the Emerald
Time is running out for John Reed and his
effort to place on the November ballot a
measure that would repeal legislation that
created a state Workers’ Compensation
Department.
With less than four months to go before
his initiative petition to repeal Senate Bills
1048,1049 and 1050 expires, Reed seems
to be outnumbered in his effort to get more
than 30,000 valid signatures to bring his
referendum to a vote. It isn’t the first time
Reed has been on the short end of support
for a cause.
Reed, 46, of Springfield, has had nearly
18 years experience fighting for causes he
thinks are valid.
He first became involved with the
Workmen’s Compensation Board in 1964
when he was injured for the first time and
filed a compensation claim.
Since then he has been injured a second
time, had more than 100 X-rays on his back,
had surgery and is now preparing for
another operation.
Reed’s compensation claim has been cut
off three times, he says. Each time the
reason for closing his claim has been that
he is “medically stable.”
Being considered "medically stable” is
just one of the reasons Reed wants to re
peal the 1977 Legislature’s creation of a
Workers' Compensation Department, and
all the regulations that go with it.
The three Senate bills responsible for
most of the changes aren’t good for injured
workers, he says. They set a new definition
of suitable employment and preclude sev
eral injured workmen from ever coming
under total disability.
They put the burden of proof on the
worker to prove his case, rather than on an
insurance company to prove the worker
doesn't deserve the benefit, he explains.
They also deviate from the “spirit of the
compensation law passed in 1965.”
That workmen’s compensation act came
as a result of employees inability to afford
industrial health insurance, he says. When
it was created it was meant to aid the
worker. The new legislation is meant to aid
the insurance companies and the lawyers
who argue workers’ cases, he says.
“What I’m trying to do is amend the laws
to make them more adherent to the spirit of
the law,” he explains. Under the new law,
some provisions, such as the medically
stationary clause, could be used to to keep
injured workers off the compensation rolls.
Reed’s effort to change the laws is not his
first. After he was injured 14 years ago,
Reed borrowed money to attend the Uni
versity and graduated four years later.
During his first conflicts with the com
pensation board, it became apparent that to
survive the clashes he would need a good
working knowledge of the law.
After much legal study, Reed became the
first layman to argue a case before the
Oregon Supreme Court. His first challenge
was to a reappropriation plan by the state
Legislature, which would have divided state
representative districts and “taken away
the concept of one man, one vote,” he says.
It amounted to nothing more than ger
rymandering bv the leaislatnrc ”
Through his legal maneuvers Heed has
gained a lot of ground for his causes, he
says, while gaining enemies. A change in
the use of 11-inch legal pad paper in the
courtroom to eight-inch paper was consi
dered a triumph for Reed. “Any change you
can get in this game is a big deal,” he says.
A long-time critic of the legal profession,
Reed explains his involvement in the peti
tion drive stems not only from his personal
experiences, but also from those of all the
claimants who are facing similar problems.
But Reed’s drive has been hampered by
a lack of publicity and by apathetic workers
who don't have to depend on compensation
money to live, he says.
Reed has focused his attention on the
news media to get his message to the
workers. Although he has written nearly
100 letters to the Portland Oregonian ask
ing that some attention be paid to the
issue, he has received no response.
By the time the drive is finished, Reed will
have spent more than $1,000 in printing
costs for his petitions, pamphlets and let
ters to the editors of nearly every news
paper in the state.
Much of Reed’s criticism has been
leveled at the appointed head of the Work
ers’ Compensation Department, Roy
Green.
Green, 60, a former president of
Workmen’s Compensation Advisor Inc., a
firm specializing in actuarial consulting for
self-insured employers and a former
chairer of the Associated Oregon Industries
(AOI), which is also the state’s largest bus
iness lobby, was appointed by Gov. Bob
Straub in August of last year.
While Green has had the experience to
run the newly created department, Reed
questions his biases.
Even though Green’s nearly $450,000 in
stock holdings with the Employees Ben
efits, Inc., a private compensation fund
which insures workers statewide, is in a
blind trust to be sold later, Reed still ques
tions whether or not a conflict of interest
exists.
Time might be running out, but Reed isn’t
about to quit. Harrassment and setbacks
haven’t stopped him before, he says.
“I haven’t got much time,” Reed explains.
"Right now, the way things are, I’ll need 500
valid signatures every day for the next four
months to get enough to put my measure on
the ballot.”
Workman’s comp
(Continued from Page 1)
lone explains. ‘There is no other
way they could find out some of
the things they find out.’’
Mallone and her lawyers have
been in court several times in the
past five years to appeal decisions
by the Workmen’s Compensation
Board on her claim. Each time,
she says, she is met by opposition
from the insurance company.
At press time Monday, Liberty
Mutual Insurance company offi
cials were unavilable for comment
on the accusations.
But the Liberty Mutual Insur
ance company may not be the
only opposition the participants of
t
the petition drive have, Reed
says. Other workers who are in
sured through policies with other
insurance companies have been
treated the same way.
“Under these new laws the in
surance companies pay less for
the injured workman,” Reed says,
“which ups their profit quite a bit."
Some companies and agencies
have used provisions of the new
laws, such as jury trials for injured
workers who appeal judgments on
their claims, as harrassing de
vices to scare people away from
trying to receive their full compen
sation benefits, Reed says. "No
one in their right mind would go
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through all that.”
Robert Faught, who has been
involved in two petition drives with
Reed, says his compensation
claim has been delayed several
times because of his participation.
Faught has been disabled with
a back injury for more than a year.
After two doctors recommended
survery for the injury, he says, the
State Accident Insurance Fund,
which also insures workers in the
state, asked for more examina
tions through the William A. Cal
lahan Rehabilitation Center in
Wilsonville.
Faught was judged medically
stable by the therapists at the
center and his doctors withdrew
their recommendations for the
surgery.
The therapists, Faught says,
were wrong in their judgment. “If
on,” the woman said. “When I
asked them to help me, all they
would tell me was that they
had some new legislation and that
they didn’t have to do anything for
me or any worker again. I didn’t
know anything about any new
legislation at all."
The woman then called the
Workers’ Compensation Depart
I
merit in Salem and asked for an
explanation and was told to stay
out of Reed’s petition drive, she
says.
I’d had that surgery I’d been back
to work today,” he says. “But as it
was, I had to go out of town before
I could find a doctor to do anything
for me.”
Faught’s compensation claim is
still under appeal. Much of the
“run around” he has experienced
was because of his involvement in
the petition drive, he claims.
Some workers who have ques
tioned the newly established sys
tem of evaluating compensation
claims have been subtly warned
to stay out of the petition drive,
Reed says.
One Southern Oregon woman,
who refused to be identified,
claims that even though she
hadn’t heard of the petition drive,
officials of the new Workers’
Compensation Department were
warning her not to get involved.
The woman, who has been dis
abled for more than five years,
says after she asked her local
compensation board for help on
her claim, she was told the board
“didn't have to do anything.”
“I didn’t know what was going
Prior to that conversation, the
woman had never heard of Reed
or his petition, she says. The offi
cial also told her that if she did get
involved with the drive, her claim,
which has been certified by more
than 20 doctors as permanently
disabled, would be reviewed and
possibly closed.
“It was tough enough to get
compensation under the old law,"
the woman says. “I’ve fought a
very long hard battle and believe
me, it's hard to win against these
people."
The petition drive may have met
opposition, but no one in the
Workers’ Compensation Depart
ment is worried about its effects,
says Edward Eberhardt, informa
tion director for the department.
The petitions might do more
harm to the workers than the new
legislation, Eberhardt says.
“The laws that created this de
partment were enacted by the
Legislature, which is the elected
body of representatives for
everyone in the state,” he says.
“So there must have been some
support for them or they wouldn’t
have passed."
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