workerscompbiz.com

On 7/25/11, I wrote about a company that had let its coverage lapse in 2006.  Since then, 22 claims have been filed including one death claim.  The business now owes almost $700,000 in premiums, penalties, interest, and claims costs.

The BWC has successfully gotten an injunction to close the business to protect the employees and the other employers in Ohio from having to pay for the claims.  This is believed to be the first action of its kind by the BWC.

 Now the employees are safer, but unemployed.  Will ODJFS pay the unemployment compensation claims even if the business owner hasn’t paid those premiums either?

Here’s a link to the press release on the BWC website if you want to read the details:  https://www.ohiobwc.com/home/current/releases/2012/032812refuse.asp

A northeast Ohio business owner stopped paying his premiums in 2006.  In the five years since then, his employees filed 25 claims for work-related injuries.  The owner now owes more than $600,000 in unpaid premiums, claims costs, penalties and interest.

The BWC worked with the owner but he continued to operate his business without paying its premiums.  The BWC paid for the medical services and compensation for the injured employees.  Those costs were billed to the business, and the owner didn’t pay them either.

The court found the owner guilty of two counts of failure to comply with workers’ comp law.  He was sentenced to 90 days in jail (suspended), one year of active probation and 80 hours of community work service.

Now the BWC is seeking an injunction to make him stop operating the business until he becomes fully compliant with Ohio workers’ comp law.  If the injunction is granted, his employees will be laid off and his customers will go elsewhere.  He won’t have any income from the business, either.  And Ohio employers who pay their premiums will continue to bear the costs of his employees’ claims.

If you know of any workers’ comp premium deadbeats, turn them in!

Make a call to the BWC fraud unit at 800-OHIOBWC or 800-644-6292, and choose option 4.  Or go to www.ohiobwc.com and click on Report Fraud at the bottom of the home page.  You can remain anonymous.

The BWC is seriously pursuing business owners who let their workers’ comp coverage lapse and fail to reinstate it, or employers who have never gotten coverage at all.

When employers are found guilty, the judges are ordering jail time, probation, payment of back premiums, reimbursement of BWC investigation costs, and fines.

This may sound harsh to any business owner who has ever had occasional cash flow challenges.  But deadbeat employers harm you in two ways.  First, they can undercut their competitors because of their lower costs of doing business.  Second, the cost of claims filed against deadbeat employers are included in the premiums paid by every non-deadbeat employer.

I don’t advocate a business war, but if your competitors don’t pay for workers’ comp coverage, turn them in!

Make a call to the BWC fraud unit at 800-OHIOBWC or 800-644-6292, and choose option 4.  Or go to www.ohiobwc.com and scroll down to Report Fraud at the bottom of the home page.  You can remain anonymous.