On Monday, Nike Inc. announced plans to pay $1.54 million in workers’ compensation funds to over 1,500 Honduran workers who were suddenly laid off last year when the Choloma and San Pedro Sula factories were shut down without notice.  Nike had hired the two factories to produce Nike apparel.  Under Honduras law, the workers were owed $2.6 million in severance after the factories closed.

Initially, Nike had refused to pay any compensation or severance to the laid off workers, believing that it was the responsibility of their subcontractors, Hugger and Vision Tex.  However, after pressure from university and student anti-sweatshop groups, Nike Inc. decided to make a deal with the workers’ union Central General de Trabajadores de Honduras.

Nike will also cover the cost of enrolling the laid off workers in Honduras’ national health care program for one year.

If you or someone you love is seeking workers’ compensation, contact the Raleigh workers’ compensation lawyers of Scudder & Hedrick PLLC at 919-851-3311 to learn more about your rights.

This week, President Obama issued an order asking federal workplace agencies to improve their workplace safety standards in order to reduce the number of claims by federal employees and the amount of federal money spent on workers’ compensation claims.

The order asks that in four years agencies will have cut the number of employee injuries and illness incurred on the job, as well as the amount of time spent to review a claim.  ”Many of these work-related injuries and illnesses are preventable, and executive departments and agencies can and should do even more to improve workplace safety and health, reduce the financial burden of injury on taxpayers, and relieve unnecessary suffering by workers and their families,” stated Obama.

In 2009, 79,000 new claims were filed by federal employees and over $1.6 billion was spent by the federal government on workers’ compensation.

If you or someone you know has been injured or become ill on the job, contact the Raleigh workers’ compensation lawyers of Scudder & Hedrick PLLC at 919-851-3311 to learn more about your rights.

The Veterans Administration decided to make it easier for veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder to receive disability benefits last week.   Previously, all veterans could be treated for PTSD, however only veterans with proof that they served on the front lines or were involved in a stressful event could receive disability benefits.

VA officials changed disability benefit regulations so that now, veterans only need documentation that they served in a war zone and an honorable discharge.

Josh Callahan of the Boise VA Medical Center stated, “Before this change, a soldier who had been in combat could get benefits, but others had more trouble, even if they had the diagnosis”.

If you or someone you love suffers from PTSD or another disability, contact the Raleigh temporary disability lawyers of Scudder & Hedrick PLLC at 919-851-3311 to learn more about your rights.

The Public Sector Star Award is an award given to local government and state agencies with superior workplace safety standards.  Yesterday, the Davidson County Integrated Solid Waste Management Department was given the award for the second time.  Four years ago, the department was the first landfill in the nation to win the award.

North Carolina Commissioner of Labor Cherie Berry was on site to present the award to the department.  She praised them for looking out for fellow coworkers and stated, “It’s really that simple- be your brothers’ and your sisters’ keepers”.

The department has a record number of 871,000 man hours without lost-time injury, which they hope to bring up to 1 million later this month.  Furthermore, the number of recorded injuries fell from 69 in 2001 to 24 in 2009.

If you or someone you know has been injured in the workplace, contact the Raleigh workers’ compensation attorneys of Scudder & Hedrick PPLC at 919-851-3311 to learn more about your rights.

Two Echota Technologies contractors were involved in a fatal training accident at Fort Bragg last month.  Echota Technologies is a defense contractor based in Tennessee.

The accident occurred on a weapons range during short-range live-fire training.

The two employees were working as range maintenance technicians at the time of the accident.  As range maintenance technicians they set up and control targets on weapons ranges, as well as record damage to range equipment and facilities.

57-year old Edward L. Jenkins died after the shooting accident at Womack Army Medical Center.  Another contractor, 27-year old Daniel R. Aliff, was also injured and was treated at UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill.

Our utmost sympathies go out to Jenkins’ family and friends.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board is trying to improve workplace standards in gas-fired plants after the investigations of two terrible explosions caused during the cleaning of natural gas pipes.  The most recent accident occurred in February at the Kleen Energy plant in Middletown, Connecticut killing six and injuring at least fifty workers.  Investigators saw extreme similarities in the Kleen Energy explosion and the explosion at the ConAgra Foods Slim Jim plant in Garner, North Carolina last June 2009.  In the explosion at ConAgra four workers were killed and sixty-seven were injured.

Both of the accidents occurred during the cleaning of gas-piping through either flushing pipes or venting gas.

Members of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board voted 4-1 in Middletown on Monday for a list of 18 urgent recommendations to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the National Fire Protection Association, and other organizations.

Board member John Bresland stated, “CBS investigators have determined that no specific federal workplace safety standards prohibit intentional, planned releases of natural gas into workplaces…We also determined that there are safe, feasible, economical alternatives to the unsafe gas-handling practices that caused this accident”.

If your or someone you love has been injured in the workplace, contact the Raleigh workers’ compensation attorneys of Scudder & Hedrick PLLC at 919-851-3311 to learn more about your rights.

A worker in New York lost seven fingers and part of an eight in a manufacturing accident on Wednesday, June 16th.

The man, 53-year old Manuel Rosario, was working at the aerospace company Hughes-Treitler in Garden City on Long Island when the machine he was using shut suddenly before he could move his hands out of the way.  Rosario is left with his two thumbs and part of his right pinkie.

A spokesperson for Hughes-Treitler’s parent company, Ametek Inc., confirmed there was an accident but offered no further details.  The Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the accident to determine what caused the equipment malfunction.

If you or someone you love has been injured in the workplace, contact the Raleigh manufacturing equipment malfunction lawyers of Scudder & Hedrick PLLC at 919-851-3311 to learn more about your rights.