WCA Expresses Concern About the "Streamlined Conciliation Process" - a/k/a "MAP"
The Workers’ Compensation
Hearings are Critical. Holding an early hearing in a claim is critical to ensuring that workers receive the proper benefits. For decades, the Board held regular hearings at which WCL Judges met injured workers in person, reviewed their cases, and provided direct and personal advice to the worker about his or her claim.
In the past decade, the Board has increasingly denied hearings before WCL Judges to injured workers, instead issuing “Administrative” and “Proposed” Decisions which decide important legal issues. These decisions are produced not by Judges, but instead by non-judicial WCB staff. They are written in language that the average worker cannot understand, do not adequately inform workers about their rights, and often contain errors. In short, these paper decisions are inferior in every way to the hearing process.
Access to Benefits. Instead of recognizing that the Administrative and Proposed Decision process that began under the anti-worker Pataki Administration is designed to limit access to benefits and due process for injured workers, its use has regrettably accelerated under the Spitzer and Paterson administrations. Rather than eliminating these non-hearing decisions and restoring the right of injured workers to hearings before WCL Judges, the Board is reportedly considering expanding the authority of its non-judge employees to decide claims and to issue those decisions without hearings. The WCA opposes the Administrative and Proposed Decision process, and is opposed to any further expansion of the program.
Injured workers have a right to have their claims heard, in person, by a WCL Judge. Judges are obviously better trained and more versed in the law than non-judicial Board staff. A Judge who is able to see and speak to an injured worker is obviously in the best position to identify issues in the case, to explain the issues to the worker in terms the worker can understand, and to make sure that the worker receives all of the benefits that are due.
The WCA Position. The WCA calls on the Board not only to abandon the ill-advised MAP/Streamlined Conciliation program, but to sharply reduce its use of non-hearing decisions to decide legal issues in workers’ compensation claims. The WCA calls on the Board to hold an initial hearing in every claim to ensure that workers are properly advised of their rights and receive the proper benefits. This is not a radical proposal, but would simply represent a return to a method that was proven effective for over eight decades. We recognize that the Board has limited resources and that some issues in some established cases may be suitable for non-hearing decisions, and the WCA will work with the Board to identify and address these issues. It is essential, however, that an initial hearing be held in each case in order to preserve benefits and due process for injured workers.
