Reading Room

A unanimous New Jersey Supreme Court decided that firefighters, whether paid or volunteer, may receive Workers’ Compensation benefits for developing respiratory illness and lung disease as a result of exposure to asbestos, fumes and other toxic substances encountered on the job. Decided February 11, 2002, the case of Culbert vs. City of Jersey City and its companion Lindquist vs. City of Jersey City, reversed the Judgment of the Appellate Division, which threw out the firefighter’s claims.

Many occupations and lifestyles have a history of exposure to high levels of asbestos fiber. If you have engaged in one or more of the following occupations, you may wish to discuss this exposure with your physician.

Workers' Compensation is remedial social legislation that was designed to provide benefits to workers for on-the-job injuries. Those benefits include temporary disability, medical treatment costs, and permanent disability benefits.

Temporary Disability--When out of work and under authorized medical care for more than 7 days (retroactive), you are entitled to receive temporary disability benefits not to exceed 70% of the State Average Weekly Wage (SAWW).

The current workers' compensation system faces soaring medical costs and an expanding perimeter of liability for bioterrorism.

The New Jersey Workers’ Compensation Act [WCA] provides for the awarding of benefits to those individuals who have contracted an illness as a result of their exposure to toxic substances at work.

Various Federal issues are challenging the existence of the state-based workers' compensation scheme in the United States.

The Social Security/Medicare program had its genesis in President Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" policies. During the succeeding Democratic administrations of Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson, it was developed into the "Great Society" approach, providing a social insurance program intended to operate not as welfare but as earned benefits. With the increasing focus on promptly providing necessary medical treatment to citizens, the Federal government's role of providing conditional payments has expanded at a tremendous cost.

The Federal Government continues to struggle with the need to share data from workers' compensation (WC) programs an effort to reduce payment errors. While both systems benefit injured workers, the United States General Accounting Office (GAO) reported, in a May 2001 study, that the lack of a uniform and consistent method to collect data on a national level has led to irregularities in the delivery of Federal benefits. 

One of the most pressing challenges in the reformation of New Jersey's Workmen's Compensation system is in the area of occupational disease.

 "The Cold War Compensation Act" is the first federal workers' compensation program to be implemented in the last twenty years. The benefit program that will be offered to beryllium workers amounts to a federal bailout of a monopolistic private industry that has hidden behind the cloak of national security and has endangered the lives of workers, their household contacts and innocent bystanders.