THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 16, 1997 TAG: 9702150601
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 150 lines
There was never much doubt about who was the breadwinner in the Scotece family.
It was Ray. He worked three jobs.
He'd go to Rowe Nissan at 9 a.m. and repair cars until 3 p.m. Then he'd rush over to work as a truck mechanic at the City of Norfolk. Those 10-hour shifts, four days a week, lasted from 3:30 p.m. until 2 a.m.
On weekends, he'd pull two more 10-hour shifts loading appliances and stereos at the JANAF Circuit City warehouse.
Scotece didn't mind working 90-hour weeks. He wanted to provide for his wife and three children.
``I enjoyed work,'' Scotece said. ``I was brought up where you earn what you get.''
He earned $40,000 a year. Until July 17, 1994.
That's the day Scotece got hurt at work.
He would discover in the ensuing two years gaping holes in Virginia's workers' compensation laws. Holes that mean many of the state's 215,000 multiple-job holders would be left with a fraction of their pay if injured on the job.
Scotece's workers' compensation would be based only on his pay at one of his parttime jobs. The $625 a week he was clearing at the three jobs was replaced with weekly compensation payments of $110.68.
``I don't think anybody could survive by themselves on that amount,'' Scotece said. ``Let alone with a family.''
The injury
Scotece was at Circuit City that day in 1994 loading boxes onto a stockpicker, a machine similar to a forklift. The pallet slid and wedged his left foot against the stockpicker.
Scotece fell backwards. His body twisted and his spine popped.
He tried to keep working, but eventually went to the hospital where an examination showed one of his lower disks pressing on a nerve. They tried to treat Scotece without surgery, but he had to give up the Rowe Nissan job so he could take physical therapy during the day.
He recovered some lost income when Circuit City gave him more hours and a slight raise. But his condition would get worse.
After a year of working that job and the city job, he developed a shooting pain in his testicles and the bottom of his left leg ``felt like it was going to explode.'' Another MRI revealed three herniated disks.
``The doctor looked at me and he says, `How did you work with three disks like this?,' '' Scotece recalled. ``I says, `When you have to feed a family, you'd be surprised what you can do.' ''
They operated right away. They said Scotece's left leg might have nerve damage. He underwent a second operation a year ago. Tried more physical therapy. Went to ``pain management'' courses. Took painkillers.
Despite it all, Scotece can't work. At 37 years old, he walks with a cane and wears enough joint and tendon braces to play pro football. Scotece wonders whether he'll work again.
Virginia's workers compensation program pays him a weekly wage based on his Circuit City pay - before his injury, before they boosted his hours and wages.
He gets $5604.04 a year.
His mortgage payment alone is about $8,000 a year.
Multiple job holders at risk
Scotece has spelled out his plight to legislators, attorneys and those at the Workers' Compensation Commission.
Most people are captivated when Scotece tells his story. His eyebrows rise towards his short, gray-speckled dark hair. His roundish face seems rounder when his eyes get big as he pleads:
``I don't want nobody to feel sorry for me or pity me or nothing. I just want to get the laws changed and I want to go back to work.''
Those who know the rules and hear Scotece's story agree he fell prey to Virginia's business-friendly workers' compensation laws.
``It is a sad case,'' said Alli Alligood, legislative assistant to state Sen. Stanley Walker. ``I was actually surprised to understand exactly how it works.''
The law deals with about 60,000 Virginia workers who file claims each year, according to the Workers' Compensation Commission.
Basically, workers' compensation stipulates that if a person is hurt on the job and unable to work, the worker receives two-thirds of his or her salary for the next 500 weeks. In most cases, that should more or less equal the worker's previous take-home pay, since workers' compensation payments are not taxed.
Most cases are not like Scotece's. He was among the 6.5 percent of the Virginia work force that holds more than one job, according to the U.S. Current Population Survey. The U.S. average is 6.2 percent.
The real numbers could be even higher in Virginia and Hampton Roads because a member of the military with a second job in the civilian work force would not be counted.
``You talk about how good the economy is,'' said Sen. Walker, ``but you find a lot of people are working two or three jobs - young people especially.''
A multiple-job holder injured at work can get two-thirds of his salary from each job - if the workers' compensation commission deems those jobs ``similar.''
Scotece's warehouse job at Circuit City was determined ``dissimilar'' from his mechanics jobs at Rowe Nissan and the City of Norfolk. So he only gets financial credit for two-thirds of the part-time Circuit City job.
``He is a victim, if you will, of the law,'' said Mary Ann Link, chief deputy commissioner of Workers' Compensation. ``He can't work, I know he can't work.''
The idea of the law was to be fair to workers and employers, Link says. If someone is making $40,000 a year and wants to earn some extra money working at Lillian Vernon for $6 an hour during the holidays, why should Lillian Vernon have to pay two-thirds of both salaries if the person gets hurt?
Why should Vernon have to pay a high rate just because the worker earned a lot more elsewhere?
``What I'm telling you is not a sympathetic view,'' Link says, ``but a business view.''
A family campaign
Scotece can't sue Circuit City either.
Well, he could. But he'd lose.
A fundamental goal of the workers' compensation law is to settle workplace injuries out of court. Scotece said he got hurt because the stockpicker was broken. Circuit City said facts about an employee's injury are confidential and the company won't comment.
Regardless, the law essentially eliminates employer negligence, Link says.
So Scotece is trying to make enough noise to get Virginia's laws changed. His daughter, Maria, wrote President Clinton a letter asking for him to pressure Virginia lawmakers to plug some of the loopholes.
She then told Clinton the family had gone through a domino effect of tragedies after her father's injury. They could not make the mortgage payments for their Ocean View home, so they moved into an apartment building Scotece's father owned.
They had to give up their dog, Maggie. Maria and her brothers, Gregory and Luke, had to leave their friends at Bay View Elementary and start over at Ocean View Elementary.
Mom was no longer home to greet the kids after school, since the telemarketing job she found starts at 2 p.m. everyday.
Julie Scotece can no longer do one of her favorite things with her husband: go dancing.
Some of those problems have been solved. They moved back into their house, thanks to Julie's new job. The kids got a new dog, but still talk about the one they gave away.
``I loved work, but they took everything I had,'' Ray Scotece said. ``They took everything and left nothing and expect me to go on with my life.''
Once again, there's not much doubt about who is the breadwinner at the Scotece house.
It's Julie. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
GARY C. KNAPP
Ray Scotece, left, relies on a cane because of an injury he suffered
on his job at Circuit City. Scotece held three jobs to support his
wife, Julie, not pictured, and three children, from left, Maria, 8,
Luke, 6, and Gregory, 9. Worker's compensation pays Ray only for his
earnings at Circuit City, and not for what he brouight in from two
other jobs.
KEYWORDS: MULTIPLE JOBS WORKERS COMPENSATION INJURIES