The Times Picayune

MONEY

A painful discussion

SECTION

C

Saturday, May 12, 1990

Peter Rocha, in a neck brace, and others listen to Bill Temminck talk about workers' compensation Thursday

Workers' comp recipients tell

of frustrations

STAFF PHOTOS BY ELIOT KAMENITZ

Reynard. injured last June when he slipped in a water puddle, gets his workers' compen sation from the US. Department ut Labor in Dallas. For two months, he borrowed from friends while waiting for his checks to start coming. During that time, he placed repeated long-distance calls to the office and wasted, suometimes all day, to hear back.

Later, when Reynard was running a 103-degree temperature and tried to reschedule a ductor's appointment, the doctor told him to call the labur Department. Only the department could excuse and reschedule him.

But the hardest part of all is getting no respect, said Henry Jenkins. a Tulane University de

very man who till waths utly from the tall he uttered sapping n welcome inat.

Jenkins recounted the tongue lashing he received when ne missed a bus and arrived hall hour Lite at his therapist.

"She said. What would you expect if you were a hall hour late to your job I said I'd punch in, then tell my supervisor and go to work. She said I was being difficult. She walked and sand. I'll come back when you're ready to tell me the right an

>wer.

The exchange was repeated several times over an hour, until Jenkins gave her the night an swer. which was that his pay would be docked a half-hour.

"After that." Jenkins said. "I always made sure I went early. even if it meant waiting 15 min.

Insurance companies are using information on you to make money. At your expense. It is very common now for insurance companies to sell or trade information on your Workers Comp claim to potential employers, making YOU all but unemployable. It is very common for insurance companies to trade information on your cancer or other chronic disease, making YOU all but uninsurable. It is now very common for insurance companies to take your auto insurance money and then declare bankruptcy, making YOU have to face staggering bills from accidents.

They are the big guys. We are the little guys.
But David Beat Goliath, and we can too.

Insurance companies have their own lobbyists. So laws are passed that benefit insurance companies. Insurance companies have their own lawyers. So court cases usually work out to their benefit. And by and large, they try to make the system so complicated that we get frustrated and let them get away with stuff they should never get away with.

But, if we stick together, there are more of us than there are of them. We need to get more information. We need to find the others who have been "worked over" by the system and get together with them. Then we need to put the heat on where it will do the most good.

At the Louisiana Consumer League Annual Meeting, we will try to bring together the three groups who are being "beaten" by the insurance companies: Injured Workers who can't get help, Chronically ill, who can't get help, and Auto Accident victims who can't get help. AND FIGURE OUT WAYS TO GET HELP.

When we are all together, we will be a powerful force.

Saturday, May 19th
10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

University of New Orleans, Lakefront
University Center

There is a $5 registration fee. You can't fight somethin with nothin.

Now We Fight Back!

For more information, call Bill at 861-5830. In Baton Rouge, call David at 344-7416.

Data merchants invade our lives

cannot participate in the economy without them.

How secure is your financial institution's telephone
access to account information? If only a customer's ac-
count number and the last four digits of his or her social
security number are needed to access account informa-
tion, beware! This information is often printed on our
checks.

Have you filed a worker compensation injury claim or
been injured on the job? Your future employment op
tions may be limited. Only your name, social security
number, injury and whether your previous supervisor
would rehire you is recorded - but not the reasons,
cause or circumstances.

Was your application for life, health or disability in-
surance rejected? A national bureau records our health
history in graphic detail. Information is submitted by
and available to insurance companies.

How can we protect ourselves against the misuse of
our personal history? Systems are already in place and
market practices dictate policy. We have to organize to
regain our right to privacy from data merchants. Here
are a few ways:

Data merchants should pay a royalty to use a consum-
er's personal history.

An individual's address should not be sold without his
or her permission.

Use the courts to assert rights to privacy when errors
and discrimination are discovered or suspected.

Strict data file access accountability laws should be
enacted to provide individuals with a notice each time
their file is accessed. The name, address, telephone num-
ber and purpose of the user should be known.

Enact due process employment protections to secure
job opportunities involving database information.
Prohibit broad waiver of privacy rights on applica-
tions for credit, jobs and insurance.

Data collectors should notify individuals of their file,
make files available at least once a year upon request
and correct errors within days, not weeks or months.

Data providers should pay penalties for errors and
correct errors submitted to all of their reporting agen-
cies.

Louisiana's Constitution appears to guarantee a citi-
zen's right to personal privacy: "Every person shall be
secure in his person, property, communications, houses,
papers, and effects against unreasonable searches,
seizures, or invasions of privacy." But this provision pro-
tects us only against government intrusion, not corpo-
rate intrusion.

Database networks should not be allowed to restrict our ability to live and work as we lawfully choose.

Editor's note: David Czernik is executive director of the Louisiana Consumers League.

38-684 0 91 -- 6

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY AND SIGN BELOW

I hereby declare that I am not disabled in any way which would prevent me from steadily performing all the work applied for in this application. I further declare that the answers to the questions on the opposite side are correct and that any misstatement of fact or omission should be cause for dismissal or rejection. I authorize the company to contact any of my previous employers as well as any reference source in order to verify the facts and information I have furnished regarding my qualifications and character. I hereby authorize any person(s) having knowledge thereof to provide such information to the company, and I hereby release from liability and agree to hold harmless any person that furnishes such information in good faith. I agree that I will submit to a physical, polygraph. urinalysis. and/or blood or other examination requested by the company at any time prior to subsequent to my employment. I authorize the company to supply my employment record in whole or part and in confidence to any employer, insurance agency, or other party with a legal and proper interest, and I hereby release the company from any liability and agree to hold harmless any employee of the company who furnishes such information. I further understand that my employment is for no fixed time and may be discontinued with or without cause or notice by myself or the company. I understand that no employee or officer or agent of the company may bind it by oral or printed statements, including handbooks, benefit books, or bulletins, contrary to the above.

Under the provisions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. Sec. 1681. et seq. notice is hereby given that a consumer report or investigative consumer report may be made which may include information to your credit worthiness, character, general reputation, personal characteristics, and mode of living, which will be used for employment purposes An investigation into your workers compensation or industrial accident background may also be conducted.

You are further advised under said Act that any person who procures or causes to be prepared an investigative consumer report on any consumer shall, upon written request made by the consumer within a reasonable period of time after the receipt by him/her of the disclosure required by subsection 1681 (d) shall make a complete and accurate disclosure of the nature and scope of the investigation requested. This disclosure shall be made in writing, mailed or otherwise delivered, to the consumer not later than five days after the date on which the request for such disclosure was received from the consumer or such report was first requested, whichever is the latter.

You are further advised that if you are denied employment, either wholly or partly, because of information contained in a consumer report as that term is defined in the Fair Credit Reporting Act, that a disclosure will be made to you of the name and address of the consumer reporting agency making such report.

I have carefully read the information on this form, realize I had the opportunity to ask questions about it, and understand what

it means.

SIGNATURE OF APPLICANT

DATE

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER M/F/H

Job application form.
sign away rights, then hand in