LABOR COMMITTEE SEEKS INFORMATION IN WORKERS' COMP OFFICER REMOVAL
Chairs invite Executive Director Paul Sighinolfi to brief committee on secret decision made in 2011
AUGUSTA–Following reports that an injury claims resolution officer was removed from cases involving the NewPage paper mill after the mill complained, the chairs of the Legislature’s Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development Committee invited Paul Sighinolfi, Executive Director of the Workers’ Compensation Board, to meet with the committee.
“We all deserve a fair and impartial system, including workers injured on the job through no fault of their own,” said Senator John Patrick of Rumford, the Senate Chair of the committee and an employee at the NewPage mill. “Executive Director Sighinolfi’s actions have compromised the integrity of the process.”
Following complaints from a NewPage mill manager that hearing officer Glenn Goodnough was deciding cases against the mill, Sighinolfi took action that effectively removed Goodnough from deciding 40 workers’ comp claim disputes he would have otherwise reviewed.
The decision was made in 2011 shortly after mill executives met with members of the LePage administration and not publicly disclosed for nearly three years.
“This latest example of mismanagement by the LePage administration is alarming,” said Rep. Erin Herbig of Belfast, the House Chair of the Labor Committee. “Workers and employers should be able to expect fair treatment in these proceedings, but the administration’s interference is undermining faith in the system.”
Last month, the U.S. Department of Labor found that behavior by Governor Paul LePage and his political appointees “endangered the fair hearings process” for Unemployment Compensation appeals. The investigation specifically cited LePage’s March 21, 2013 Blaine House meeting where he wrongly scolded hearing officers for finding too many cases in favor of workers.
In their letter to Executive Director Sighinolfi, Senator Patrick and Rep. Herbig request he meet with the Labor Committee within the next seven to ten days.
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