Insurance Journal (08/21/12)

A new report from the California Workers’ Compensation Institute indicates that workers’ compensation insurers’ loss and expense payments climbed to almost $12.5 billion in 2011, an increase of more than $1 billion. The report was issued amid calls to overhaul the state’s workers’ compensation system and calls from the Workers Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau to increase premiums by 12.6%. Several versions of an overhaul bill are being circulated that call for $700 million in additional permanent disability benefits for injured employees, and $1.4 billion in across-the-board savings.

NJ.com (08/21/12) Myles Ma

Not one of the 24 school secretaries whose jobs were outsourced by the Board of Education in New Jersey’s Bergen County has applied to work for the private staffing company that replaced them, but Kevin Bush, president of Misson One Educational Staffing, said the company was having no trouble finding applicants to replace the secretaries. The school district outsourced nearly 100 teaching assistant and secretary jobs in all, prompting protests from employees and the Bergen County NAACP. Englewood officials said the move would cut a $4 million budget deficit in half.