CHAPTER 81 of Title 50 of the US Code
COMPENSATION FOR WORK INJURIES
Sec. 8107. - Compensation schedule
(a) If there is permanent disability involving the loss, or loss of use, of a member or function of the body or involving disfigurement, the employee is entitled to basic compensation for the disability, as provided by the schedule in subsection (c) of this section, at the rate of 66 2/3 percent of his monthly pay. The basic compensation is -
(1) payable regardless of whether the cause of the disability originates in a part of the body other than that member;
(2) payable regardless of whether the disability also involves another impairment of the body; and
(3) in addition to compensation for temporary total or temporary partial disability.
(b) With respect to any period after payments under subsection (a) of this section have ended, an employee is entitled to compensation as provided by -
(1) section 8105 of this title if the disability is total; or
(2) section 8106 of this title if the disability is partial.
(c) The compensation schedule is as follows:
(1) Arm lost, 312 weeks' compensation.
(2) Leg lost, 288 weeks' compensation.
(3) Hand lost, 244 weeks' compensation.
(4) Foot lost, 205 weeks' compensation.
(5) Eye lost, 160 weeks' compensation.
(6) Thumb lost, 75 weeks' compensation.
(7) First finger lost, 46 weeks' compensation.
(8) Great toe lost, 38 weeks' compensation.
(9) Second finger lost, 30 weeks' compensation.
(10) Third finger lost, 25 weeks' compensation.
(11) Toe other than great toe lost, 16 weeks' compensation.
(12) Fourth finger lost, 15 weeks' compensation.
(13) Loss of hearing -
(A) complete loss of hearing of one ear, 52 weeks' compensation; or
(B) complete loss of hearing of both ears, 200 weeks' compensation.
(14) Compensation for loss of binocular vision or for loss of 80 percent or more of the vision of an eye is the same as for loss of the eye.
(15) Compensation for loss of more than one phalanx of a digit is the same as for loss of the entire digit. Compensation for loss of the first phalanx is one-half of the compensation for loss of the entire digit.
(16) If, in the case of an arm or a leg, the member is amputated above the wrist or ankle, compensation is the same as for loss of the arm or leg, respectively.
(17) Compensation for loss of use of two or more digits, or one or more phalanges of each of two or more digits, of a hand or foot, is proportioned to the loss of use of the hand or foot occasioned thereby.
(18) Compensation for permanent total loss of use of a member is the same as for loss of the member.
(19) Compensation for permanent partial loss of use of a member may be for proportionate loss of use of the member. The degree of loss of vision or hearing under this schedule is determined without regard to correction.
(20) In case of loss of use of more than one member or parts of more than one member as enumerated by this schedule, the compensation is for loss of use of each member or part thereof, and the awards run consecutively. However, when the injury affects only two or more digits of the same hand or foot, paragraph (17) of this subsection applies, and when partial bilateral loss of hearing is involved, compensation is computed on the loss as affecting both ears.
(21) For serious disfigurement of the face, head, or neck of a character likely to handicap an individual in securing or maintaining employment, proper and equitable compensation not to exceed $3,500 shall be awarded in addition to any other compensation payable under this schedule.
(22) For permanent loss or loss of use of any other important external or internal organ of the body as determined by the Secretary, proper and equitable compensation not to exceed 312 weeks' compensation for each organ so determined shall be paid in addition to any other compensation payable under this schedule
Fishermen In January, for example, the Coast Guard ordered a fishing boat back to port in Alaska after finding survival suits that didn't meet standards and a life raft that hadn't recently been inspected.
"Safety is usually relegated to a lower priority when revenues decline," says insurance underwriter Rob Wells, pointing to some shrimp boat operators in the Southeast.
Economic pressures have caused fishermen to stay at sea to increase their catch, despite bad weather or the need for boat repairs.
Six crewmembers on the Andrea Gail, a Gloucester, Mass., vessel popularized in the book and movie The Perfect Storm, were killed in hurricane-force winds and huge waves in the Atlantic Ocean in 1991 after trying to increase their swordfish catch.
Fishermen say designated time periods for catching particular species, agreed on by government and industry for conservation reasons, can also compromise safety. "Fishermen don't want to miss one single day," says marine engineer Harold Gray. "If there's bad weather or a mechanical problem when you're out on the water, you live with it."
The Effect of New Information As flames raged through the cod fishing boat Galaxy in the Bering Sea last October, George Karn jumped toward a life raft about 70 feet below. But a line connecting the ship to the raft had just been cut, and the emergency craft drifted away. Karn plunged into the frigid, turbulent Alaskan waters.
The bodies of Karn, the boat's cook, and first mate Jerry Stephens, who was thrown into the sea by an explosion, were never found, according to testimony given to the Coast Guard in January by survivors and rescuers.
Karn, 45, chose the 180-foot Galaxy for safety reasons, his sister Patricia Karn recalls.
"He was so happy to be on the Galaxy," she says. "He had worked on a very small boat and was trying to get on a bigger and better boat. He was scared because he had been offered a job on the Arctic Rose and knew the captain and first mate who died on that boat."
The 92-foot Arctic Rose was trawling for sole when it sank in the Bering Sea in early April 2001, killing all 15 crewmen, including many who were young and inexperienced.
Regulation of Fishing Safety "Fishermen are brought to the safety table kicking and screaming," says Jim Herbert, an Alaskan fisherman and chairman of an industry-dominated safety committee that advises the Coast Guard.
"Prevention of casualties will occur when we decide to require design, construction and maintenance standards for all fishing vessels and licensing standards for operators and crewmembers," says Richard Hiscock, a marine safety expert who was an adviser to the 1999 task force.
McHugh, the maritime lawyer, says his stance may be unpopular with boat operators, the majority of his clients, but more could be done to make boats more seaworthy and less vulnerable to flooding. "I don't think the safety regulations on the books are sufficient," he says. "Nothing is in place other than good advice in preventing an accident from taking place."
Compared with other segments of the maritime industry, the fishing industry "is largely unregulated," says John Cullather, a staff member of the House Committee on Transportation who helped write the 1988 fishing safety legislation.
Today, most fishing boat operators aren't required to have a license or safety training. Yet, recreational boating operators in at least 33 states are required to have such training, according to the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators.
Fishing boat crewmembers also aren't certified, and most have little or no training, safety experts say. As for the boat itself, nearly all operate without safety standards for design, construction and maintenance.
These issues were addressed by the 1999 task force, which proposed 59 recommendations to improve safety. The task force called for implementing 33 of its recommendations within two years and 14 others within four years. So far, only three minor recommendations have been acted on, and action on most hasn't begun, Hiscock says.
In its executive summary, the 1999 Coast Guard task force said safety solutions "are basic and straightforward: seaworthy boats, competent crews, adequate survival equipment and safety-conscious resource and industry management regimes."
Yet "many fishermen have strongly opposed standards that might save their own lives," the task force added. "Many of those harvesting the bounty of our ocean frontier staunchly defend the independent nature of their profession and vehemently oppose outside interference."
Deaths per 100,000 employed Fishermen: 151.2
Timber cutters, loggers: 149.1
Mining machine operators: 109.7
Railroad brake, signal switch operators: 71.4
Sailors, deckhands: 65.0
Airplane pilots, navigators: 64.0
Structural metal workers: 57.7
Trash collectors: 55.4
Coal mining: 47.7
Source: Bureau of Labor 2001 statistics
Working in Iraq When National Guardsman Gerald Harris was offered $120,000 in July to work as a truck driver in Iraq for Kellogg Brown & Root, it didn't take him long to make up his mind.
Harris was ending a six-month tour hauling battle tanks to the front line, and had spent his share of sleepless nights listening to the echo of weapons fire from the sweltering sand floor of his Army tent.
"I said, 'I don't care how much money you offer me, I won't do it,' " he said.
So far, 30 of Halliburton's 24,000 employees in the Iraq- Kuwait region have been killed since last spring, and seven civilian contractors are missing.
Dozens of civilians, who are protected by private security guards but not allowed to carry weapons, also are choosing to leave. "Two weeks ago, when convoys started to be attacked, 30 quit in one week," Judy Kelly said. "Last week, seven more quit."
Judy Kelly said her husband [a truck driver] is making about $80,000 a year, a little more than they earned together when they worked as a truck driving team. Veronica Harris is earning $80,000 to $100,000 for managing recreational facilities for soldiers, about twice as much as she made in her former job in television, her husband said.
OSHA Penalties Are Small Compared to Market Costs There are only 70,000 inspections annually, not enough to make much difference (pp 782-784). Annual penalties have been less than
An Example of (1) Resistance to Enforcing Regulations, and (2) Passing the Buck "The Illegal-Alien Crime Wave," Heather Mac Donald, The City Journal, Winter 2004. http://www.city-journal.org/html/14_1_the_illegal_alien.html
Former mayor Rudolph Giuliani sued all the way up to the Supreme Court to defend the city’s sanctuary policy against a 1996 federal law decreeing that cities could not prohibit their employees from cooperating with the INS. ...
Though he lost in court, he remained defiant to the end. On September 5, 2001, his handpicked charter-revision committee ruled that New York could still require that its employees keep immigration information confidential to preserve trust between immigrants and government. Six days later, several visa-overstayers participated in the most devastating attack on the city and the country in history.
New York conveniently forgot the 1996 federal ban on sanctuary laws until a gang of five Mexicans—four of them illegal—abducted and brutally raped a 42-year-old mother of two near some railroad tracks in Queens. The NYPD had already arrested three of the illegal aliens numerous times for such crimes as assault, attempted robbery, criminal trespass, illegal gun possession, and drug offenses. The department had never notified the INS.
... Long ago, the feds stopped trying to find and deport aliens who had “merely” entered the country illegally through stealth or fraudulent documents. Currently, the only types of illegal aliens who run any risk of catching federal attention are those who have been convicted of an “aggravated felony” (a particularly egregious crime) or who have been deported following conviction for an aggravated felony and who have reentered (an offense punishable with 20 years in jail). ... In the early 1990s, for example, 15 INS officers were in charge of the deportation of approximately 85,000 aliens (not all of them criminals) in New York City. The agency’s actual response to final orders of removal was what is known as a “run letter”—a notice asking the deportable alien kindly to show up in a month or two to be deported, when the agency might be able to process him. Results: in 2001, 87 percent of deportable aliens who received run letters disappeared, a number that was even higher—94 percent—if they were from terror-sponsoring countries.To other law-enforcement agencies, the feds’ triage often looks like complete indifference to immigration violations. Testifying to Congress about the Queens rape by illegal Mexicans, New York’s criminal justice coordinator defended the city’s failure to notify the INS after the rapists’ previous arrests on the ground that the agency wouldn’t have responded anyway. “We have time and time again been unable to reach INS on the phone,” John Feinblatt said last February. “When we reach them on the phone, they require that we write a letter. When we write a letter, they require that it be by a superior.”