A newly proposed bill in Iowa would grant a 100% increase in workers’ compensation benefits to employees who are injured due to an employer’s safety violations.
Senate File 2100 would also subject the employer to a $5,000 civil penalty, which would be deposited in the state’s Second Injury Fund.
The same would apply to child labor violations that lead to worker injuries.
Specifically, the proposed bill states that “when an injury for which workers’ compensation benefits would be payable occurs in the course of employment in which the employer is found to be in violation of (Iowa’s occupational safety and health code) or the employee is found to have performed work for which the employee was not of permitted age under (the Iowa child labor code), the workers’ compensation commissioner shall increase the amount of benefits awarded by 100%. The employer shall also be subject to a civil penalty of $5,000 to be collected by the workers’ compensation commissioner and deposited in the Second Injury Fund.”
Again, this is a proposed bill, so only time will tell whether it gains enough traction to actually become law.
California has similar law but only for ‘egregious misconduct’
While Iowa’s proposed bill is the first to propose a 100% increase in benefits for injuries sustained because of an employer’s safety violations, California grants enhanced benefits under certain extreme circumstances.
The state will grant a 50% increase in benefits to an employee who was “injured by reason of the serious and willful misconduct of … the employer or his managing representative.” That cost isn’t to exceed a total of $250, however.
Serious and willful misconduct is “something much more than negligence” and requires either intentional wrongdoing by the employer or extreme disregard for employee safety, according to Yrulegui & Roberts, a workers’ compensation defense firm.
That means the statute is read far more narrowly by the courts than a “simple negligence standard” is and would require a great deal of evidence from the injured worker to prove that the employer went out of its way to cause the injury.
