SAN FERNANDO : Workshop to Focus on Workers’ Comp

The governor may have signed a reform package for workers’ compensation, but business owners still have plenty of questions.

The San Fernando Chamber of Commerce hopes a panel of three experts will help clarify the changes Wednesday during a breakfast workshop at the Odyssey Restaurant from 8-11:30 a.m.

“It’s a real popular topic,” said Lance Stevenson, director of the Small Business Development Center, a federal Small Business Administration program run through the chamber.

“A lot of the other states that are trying to lure away our businesses have always used workers’ compensation rates,” said Stevenson.

Critics of the $11-billion-a-year system have said it is rife with fraud and escalating costs. The state Legislature held heated debates over reforms, which were passed this summer.

The new regulations aim to boost compensation for seriously injured workers, while limiting other claims, and attempt to squeeze out a vast network of middlemen who profit from the system. In addition, the changes eliminate a longstanding minimum insurance rate by 1995.

Gov. Wilson has called the controversial package “the single most important job creation legislation that I have signed.”

But business owners shouldn’t expect any Christmas presents yet, warned Lance Paris, senior partner of the consulting and publishing company, Safety Publications of California, who will address the breakfast group. Rate and cost reductions won’t be felt by the average business for quite some time, if at all, he said.

Owners would be smarter to concentrate on enhancing safety in their operations to avoid the entire compensation system, said Paris.

“My attitude is, if we don’t have any accidents over the year, I don’t care how broke the system is--I’m not going to use it.”

Two other panelists will join Paris--David Tierney, director of business retention for the county’s Economic Development Corp., and Harmon Wasserman, an insurer and workers’ compensation expert.

Reservations can be made through the San Fernando Chamber of Commerce.