THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 2, 1996 TAG: 9603020272
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY O'DELL ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
Virginians who get carpal tunnel syndrome on the job cannot collect worker's compensation benefits, even if their doctors call the ailment a work-related disease, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday.
In a unanimous opinion, the court said that whether an impairment is an occupational disease as defined in the Worker's Compensation Act is more a legal question than a medical one.
The Virginia Court of Appeals had upheld compensation awards to a newspaper copy editor in Richmond and poultry plant workers in Bridgewater and Broadway. The court relied on doctors who said their patients had a disease.
``But just because a doctor opines that a particular impairment is a disease does not necessarily make it so,'' Chief Justice Harry L. Carrico wrote.
Carpal tunnel syndrome is a painful ailment in the hands or wrists caused by repetitive motion. Because the condition develops over a period of time, it also is not considered an injury under worker's compensation law.
Daniel LeBlanc, president of the state AFL-CIO, said the Supreme Court decision leaves unions no choice but to start suing companies whose workers get carpal tunnel syndrome.
Del. Clarence ``Bud'' Phillips, D-Dickenson, said he too will start taking employers to court. Phillips sponsored a bill to change the worker's compensation law to cover carpal tunnel syndrome, but a Senate committee shelved it until next year.
``People threaten to sue all the time,'' said Robert Kyle, vice president of the Virginia Manufacturers Association. ``It's hyperbole, that's all.''
The Assembly for years has wrestled with the issue of whether carpal tunnel syndrome should be covered by worker's compensation. A bill to do just that passed last year but was vetoed by Gov. George Allen, who said it would ``harm our competitive position and ability to attract new jobs and investment'' by driving up employers' costs.
This year's legislation by Phillips passed in the House of Delegates but was put off by a Senate committee at the suggestion of the manufacturers association.
``We did not oppose his bill,'' Kyle said. ``What we did say was, in light of the Supreme Court opinion we were anticipating, we thought it would be appropriate to carry the bill over.''
House Majority Leader C. Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County, sponsored a bill similar to Phillips' this year. His bill was put off until next year by a House committee.
``Virginia is a very, very conservative state when it comes to looking at injuries'' covered by worker's compensation, Cranwell said. ``To ignore the fact that there are repetitive trauma injuries is shortsighted.''
Last year, 566 Virginians filed workers' compensation claims for carpal tunnel syndrome. Compensation was awarded in 277 of those cases, the commission said.
KEYWORDS: CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME VIRGINIA STATE SUPREME COURT RULING
WORKER'S COMPENSATION.
by CNB