TALKING WITH THE EMPLOYEES ....
JANUARY 2002
 

From the General Manager/Chief Financial Officer

This is the first in a series of letters about issues important to Job Options employees. The next letter will address what we are doing to develop new business opportunities at Job Options.

2002- THE YEAR OF SAFETY

     In the year 2002, you will see us do everything in our power to insure your safety in the workplace environment. Why are we doing this? Simple, because safety pays. Most people don’t realize it but one of the single largest expenses we have is the premium we pay for our workers compensation insurance.  This expenditure amounts to several hundred thousand dollars annually and can increase dramatically if injuries and worker safety are not controlled.   At Job Options we have a relatively good history of minimizing injuries at each of our sites.   That does not change the fact that even relatively small increases in the number of injuries we incur, could increase our premiums to the point where it puts the company in a position where its surplus vanishes, and our financial health is threatened.

   Our first and primary concern is to create a workplace environment that is as safe and secure as possible.  Our corporate safety officer, Tommie Vaughn, has worked for years at each site to insure that we meet all appropriate federal, state and local regulations.  Tommie has put a lot of thought and effort into his role as the Corporate Safety Officer. Towards this end, we have had a formal safety program at each site for over 5 years.  In 2002 we have decided to upgrade this program with monthly formal safety classes that each of you will be attending in the next year that include a wide variety of multi-lingual videos and other presentations.  These classes will emphasize injury prevention and avoidance, and cover many of the most commonly confronted situations.   In addition, we are increasingly evaluating our project managers and supervisors on their contributions towards the safety at each of their sites. Each site has a 5-page checklist of items that must be in compliance in order to receive the highest safety rating.   We value your input as well, and we of course welcome your specific suggestions and advice on safety.

     Injuries however may occur, despite our best efforts to prevent them.  In order to insure that you receive proper quality treatment and control our escalating costs in this arena we have undertaken a number of actions. First of all, should you be injured, you will be evaluated and treated at a nearby Kaiser Permanente facility.  These facilities meet the stringent requirements for providing the kind of quality medical care that is needed that have been established by our workers compensation insurance carrier-State Fund.  State Fund by the way is the largest provider of workers compensation insurance in California.  Secondly, to get you back on the job and more quickly on the road to recovery, we have developed an early return to work program. This program will devise tasks that you are able to do as you recover from your specific injury. Studies have repeatedly shown that the recovery period from injury is dramatically shortened by  the worker returning to work in some fashion as quickly as possible.

    In the event of a legitimate injury, we have taken measures to insure that the injured party gets immediate and appropriate quality medical treatment.  Just as important however, is that we will not tolerate fraud and abuse of the workers compensation system.  Overburdening the system with the relatively minor aches and pains that most of us experience as a course of normal life in an attempt to get some paid leave is not what the system was designed for and is simply fraud.  Employees who attempt this kind of activity will subject themselves to our disciplinary policy and are committing fraud, which may be a criminal offense.

   I feel compelled to relay to you, one recent incident that is most troubling to us, as a kind of situation that we cannot tolerate.  Virtually all of our policies and procedures were violated in this particular situation and the affected employee was formally written up.  First of all, the employee sought relief after working hours for a sore back where there was no complaint of injury during their normal work shift.   So we have no way of knowing whether or not the injury happened at work or indeed was even related to work. Our policy is for you to immediately notify your supervisor when you are injured at work and to stop working immediately.  You will receive immediate medical evaluation and attention.    Secondly, that employee went to a local emergency room outside of our network of affiliated medical centers without checking with their supervisor first or calling the 800 number that State Fund provides to locate a Kaiser Permanente Facility.  The employee then proceeded to get treatment from a medical center they had experience with, negating an independent and unbiased medical review.  This substantially increases our costs, and causes a certain amount of natural skepticism on our view of the accident.  Our policy is that you will be taken for a medical evaluation and initial treatment at a Kaiser Permanente facility. Your project manager is aware of the closest facility, and there is a 24-hour toll free multi-lingual customer service number (1-888-222-3211)  that can be called just in case there is any doubt. Customer Service personnel operate this 888 number 24 hours a day and they will immediately provide the location of the Kaiser Permanente Facility that is close by.

   Could this injury have been legitimate? It’s possible, but highly unlikely.  By not following our established policy the employee put him/herself in a position where their claims will be severely challenged and no doubt investigated by State Fund. These challenges include ongoing investigations of claims utilizing sophisticated surveillance techniques and video.  Nothing to worry about if you are truly hurt, but something very definitely to look over your shoulder at if you are not.

    The overwhelming majority of JOI employees are honest and hardworking and would never do anything to take advantage of the system.  We have sites that have gone over two years without any claims being filed. Our comprehensive safety programs are in everyone’s best interests, and we are as committed as any employer in California to creating and maintaining a safe work environment.  To those few who view the system as something that can be milked for their benefit, all we can say at JOI is that we will aggressively defend ourselves against abuses of the system. This is not a case of where the system can be worked where no one pays.  In the end we all pay at JOI. 

Think safety, work safely.  Jeffrey Johnson, GM/CFO

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