Something Rotten in Florida--Maiming Workers For Profit

This article reveals the continuing dark side of Workers Comp and how some workers still, in this 21st Century, get maimed at work and then receive no benefits, no medical coverage, but are just discarded or worse by employers who, I regret to admit, are members of the human race.

This scandal involves one recurring scam some employers like to use--exploiting "illegal" workers to do dangerous work, and then (and only then) getting serious about the dangers of "illegal" workers.

So when these workers slice off fingers or have a nail ricochet into their eye, these employers and their insurance companies suddenly discover that these workers are using false documents, and thus can be charged with a felony and dismissed.

No penalty for the employers who hired these people in the first place. But Florida has a state agency dedicated to punishing these workers, naturally. When in doubt, always punish the victims, apparently. According to the new article:

The director of Florida’s Division of Investigative and Forensic Services, which investigates workers found using false identity information, said he wasn’t aware that employee leasing companies and their insurers reported most of the injured immigrants in recent years.

“That’s not something I’m aware of and it would be unfortunate if that’s truly what’s taking place, so maybe that’s something that would need to be looked into,” director Simon Blank said.

Blank said his staff must enforce the law.

“Although it’s unfortunate and we feel for those people, the bottom line is they committed a crime, and that crime is putting other innocent people at risk,” he said.

Pardon me while I throw up in my mouth.