How do we keep our employees safe when we’re understaffed and overworked, and our employees are feeling the associated mental and physical fatigue? If you’re like most of Vigilant’s members, you’re feeling the pressure of the times—more work than you have the resources to fulfil, making you feel behind and in “catch-up mode” most of the…
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Question: My employee says they tested positive for COVID-19 (coronavirus). There have been so many changes to the requirements that I’m not sure what I should do anymore. Please help! Answer: Start with current federal guidance and then check your state and local requirements. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) web page on…
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I advise Washington employers A LOT about discipline and terminations. One of my recent calls went like this: “Hi, we have a two-year employee who has horrible attendance and a bad attitude. No one likes working with her. She always complains about anxiety, and last week she was a no-call, no-show. When…
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Got workers’ comp questions? We’ve got answers. It’s hard to keep track of all the Workers’ Compensation acronyms, definitions, best practices and more! So we’re sharing a few frequently asked questions we recently received from our Vigilant Manufacturing Retro members. What is Standard Premium; is it the same premium I pay to L&I? Standard premium is the…
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Question: Our employee was injured at work and needs to be off work for two months. The employee filed a workers’ compensation claim, which was accepted. The plant manager told the employee that medical leave is covered by workers’ comp and to call when they’re cleared to come back to work. Are we missing…
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Question: “What action can we take to lower our upfront workers' comp premium? Where do we even start?” Answer: From Vigilant's VP of Workers' Comp, Dan Beaty. I get asked this question daily. My reply? We're here to help, and here's a hint: high frequency/impact injuries, and a strategic use of kept-on-salary(KOS). To lower upfront cost of premium and…
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Several important developments have recently occurred in Washington state. We're addressing the following topics in this post - find the full articles below. New law creates more pandemic worker protections. On May 11, 2021, Governor Jay Inslee signed ESSB 5115, the Health Emergency Labor Standards Act (HELSA), creating labor standards that automatically take…
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On April 5, 2021, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed into law SB 1377, which protects covered individuals and businesses from liability for COVID-19 related injuries to customers, students, tenants, volunteers, guests, neighbors, or members of the public, if they acted in “good faith” to protect those people from the pandemic. SB 1377 aligns with the…
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Dear Washington Manufacturer: Lowering workers’ compensation costs is a desire I hear from most of the companies I work with in Washington State. There are a lot of steps a company can take to do this that require sophisticated data analytics as well as the ability to interpret and put them into…
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Lately I’ve received a lot of questions about Vigilant’s perspective on Kept-On-Salary mandates. Here’s where we stand: We oppose KOS Mandates Our fundamental objection to KOS mandates is that they ALWAYS benefit a group retro program and its association sponsor, but do NOT ALWAYS best serve the individual member companies that are paying for it. In…
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