If you have been, know anyone, or could be injured at work- which is a resounding yes for all, as no one is immune to workplace injuries...please sign and share the petition below supporting the demand for Work Comp Legislative Reform and System Redesign.

The work comp system is a broken failure. There is rampant fraud and abuse that has been going on for years, and it is time to take back the government agencies We, The People, own.

This petition has been created to show our collective legislators that government agency reform and redesign is a non-negotiable demand nationwide.  

To see The Plan to take back our government agencies and ensure they work as intended- to serve the citizens of this country, please go to http://hungerforreform.causevox.com. It involves invoking a Citizens' Appointment to do the work and make the necessary changes in our government systems and agencies those tasked with doing so have repeatedly failed to accomplish.

Below you will find a bit more information on the State of Work Comp Affairs in Texas (and the nation), and why this is important to everyone who gets up and goes into work every day.

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To put into perspective the state of the work comp system in this country: PRISONERS ARE GIVEN MORE THAN INNOCENT INJURED WORKERS*

Prisoners are provided with:

• Legal counsel

• Fed 3 meals a day (Hungry American children aren't even guaranteed 3 meals a day)

• Housing

• Medical care- "undisputed" and guaranteed

• Education- free (GED, with some states providing free college education)

Innocent injured workers are not.  This perversion has got to stop.

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11.4 MILLION AMERICAN WORKERS ARE INJURED ON THE JOB EVERY YEAR

• 150 workers die every day of the year

• An estimated 50,000 died from occupational diseases in 2013

OSHA PENALTIES FOR SERIOUS VIOLATIONS :

OSHA penalties much too low to deter noncompliance.

• Federal:  $1,972  State:  $1,043

• Fatalities |  Federal:  $5,050  State:  $4,438 (median)      

 It is cheaper to pay the fines than to upgrade to safer equipment.

CRIMINAL PENALTIES

Must be "willful violations" resulting in worker death.

Result:  Misdemeanors

• Only 88 cases prosecuted since 1970

• Defendants served a total of 100 months in jail

During this time there were more than 390,000 worker deaths.

 Statistics above came from http://www.aflcio.org/Issues/Job-Safety/Death-on-the-Job-Report 

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IN TEXAS WE HAVE (just a sampling):

• Over 100,000 workers getting injured on the job each year

• Some of the worst death rates in the nation from work injuries

• Only 36.1% of cases (carriers mostly) bring to trial favor the injured workers (OIEC's own stats), as of 2012 (52% in 2008)

• No legal representation provided (impact is above 36.1% statistic)

• Injured workers have the burden of proof (impact is above 36.1% statistic)

• Legislators and staff callous and highly insensitive to the situations and needs of injured workers

SYSTEM WIDE ISSUES | Incompetence, Inefficiencies, Ineffectiveness

• No legal counsel provided, yet injured workers have burden of proof which insurance carriers use to get out of paying for legitimate claims (p1,3,4)

• Rampant fraud and abuse- including bullying of injured workers

• Incompetent medical care

• Necessary medical care not being provided, either through incompetent mistakes, misdiagnosis or carrier denials

• Delayed care, usually at carrier's instruction, if care is provided at all

• Excessive medical reporting errors

• Fraudulent medical reporting

• Incompetence running through every department in the system

• Institutional bias against injured employees (state agency OIEC's own wording- p1,3,4), see bullying referenced above

TEXAS STATE LEGISLATORS HAVE KNOWN ABOUT ALL OF THIS SINCE WELL BEFORE 2013.

Public Counsel Questions Success of Worker's Compensation System

"The system is not working. The system is broken."

                                     - Norman Darwin, OIEC Public Counsel, 2013

To contact the Legislators chiefly responsible for allowing this to continue, please see our Google Doc up until the website is finished.

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For more information on the State of Work Comp, two very good articles written in March of 2015, in a teaming up of NPR and ProPublica are:

The Demolition of Workers' Compensation​

How Much Is Your Arm Worth? Depends On Where You Work

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HUNGER STRIKE AT THE STATE FAIR OF TEXAS                     

                         Desperate times call for desperate measures.

The Founder of Hunger for Reform (HFR), who created this petition and is an Injured Texas Worker, has staged a Hunger Strike outside the State Fair of Texas gates.

 The absurdity of staging a Hunger Strike at the Fried Food Capital of the World is as absurd and ridiculous as what (unnecessarily) goes on in the Texas Work Comp system- and other government systems and agencies not serving the people of this state and country.

HFR is raising $1 for every American worker injured on the job every year- which is 11.4 million- to fund the reform and redesign of the country's work comp system- beginning with the Texas system.

We feel raising $1 per injured worker to redesign and reform the system to serve them is the very least we can do for them.

The Hunger Strike will continue until the funds have been raised and the work preparations begin.

To donate $1 or more and see The Plan, please go to http://hungerforreform.causevox.com. Please give what you can.  You may be a recipient of our work- at any time in your life, as none of us are immune to workplace injury, no matter our job.  Thank you.    

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HOW TO HELP | ADD YOUR VOICE

1. Please sign the petition and share with your friends and family.
2. Fund the Fight.  If everyone who is affected gave $1, which is us all, we could take back our government agencies and ensure they work as intended- to serve the citizens of this country.  Please go to http://hungerforreform.causevox.com to Fund the Fight and see The Plan.
3. Please share your stories  you or your loved ones have experienced in the work comp system on our Facebook page, where we plan to collect and deliver the stories to lawmakers. 

Thank you.

 For more information we can be found at:

TELL YOUR STORY | https://www.facebook.com/HungerforReform

FUND | http://hungerforreform.causevox.com

SHARE |  https://www.change.org/organizations/hunger_for_reform

INFO |  hungerstrike.squarespace.com (coming soon)

EMAIL |  HungerforReform@gmail.com

FACEBOOK |  https://www.facebook.com/HungerforReform 

TWITTER | https://twitter.com/hungerforreform | @HungerforReform

 

*Please see more on this at hungerstrike.squarespace.com (coming soon)