Directs the workers' compensation board to establish and operate a video conferencing hearing site in the city of Hornell, county of Steuben

Summary of provisions

Section 1 requires that the Workers' Compensation Board shall establish, maintain and operate a video conferencing hearing site for Workers' Compensation hearings and other related business in the City of Hornell, County of Steuben, NY.

Section 2 provides the effective date.

Justification

In 2013 the Workers' Compensation Board closed its Customer Service Center located at the Henderson-Smith office building (HSOB) in the City of Hornell in Steuben County. At the time, this location was one of four (4) locations in all of New York State that actually had Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) hearings in a State-owned office building. The HSOB has all the advantages of a new office space. It is conveniently located, including excellent, clean and accessible space with no rent paid to a private landlord, no natural gas or electric bills, custodial, snow plowing, security, parking or air conditioning. Upon closing the Hornell WCB site, the WCB has not shown to have had any actual savings. Currently the space formerly used by the WCB in the HSOB is vacant.

Unlike nearly all other hearing sites at privately owned buildings, the WCB was not required to pay rent to a private property owner for its space at the HSOB. Importantly, unlike the Jamestown, Rochester and Elmira hearing sites, the Hornell HSOB is accessible for rural-based constituents living inside a catchment area with a diameter of 60-70 miles.These injured workers are now being forced to drive and appear in Rochester, Jamestown or Elmira. Many of these disabled workers can't afford a shorter drive to Hornell (they are not reimbursed for mileage or parking).

In short, the WCB Hornell site closure mandate runs counter to Workers Compensation Law Sec. 117 as the closure of the Hornell hearing site is unreasonable and arbitrary. It deprives the injured worker access to justice. While persons in the criminal justice system are able to all

have their case heard locally in every local county, currently, the same local standards for fair hearings don't apply to New York State workers.

Steuben County is geographically larger than the State of Rhode Island. Portions of Allegany and Livingston counties are included in the Hornell catchment area. Thus the closure of this center forces hundreds of injured workers and their representatives to travel to urban venues; requiring in many instances over an hour to Elmira, an hour and one half to Rochester or two hours to Jamestown. The closure of this office has created a huge hardship for injured, disabled and handicapped workers living in New York's Southern Tier as there is no easy access to hearing sites for these individuals to obtain the assistance they need to secure their workers' compensation benefits when they are injured.

Furthermore, at the time of the Hornell WCB site's closure, many times the administrative judge and stenographer in Rochester who conduct the hearings did not actually travel to Hornell. Instead, the hearings were conducted electronically using teleconference facilities originating in Rochester. All required infrastructure is still located in Hornell's HSOB. Additionally, the City of Hornell has the capacity to offer its City Hall building as an alternate videoconferencing hearing site. The Hornell City Hall (HCH) and City Courtroom facility has all the advan- tages of the HSOB as well as armed Steuben County Sheriff Department security at the building.

All that is needed in Hornell is the availability of a handicapped accessible building with security and videoconferencing ability. No full-time personnel are needed. Both the HSOB and the HCH have those capabilities and both buildings are inspected by the State for all compliance with State and Federal regulations. In fact, HCH was inspected by the WCB in 2014.

This bill makes it clear that only a videoconferencing site is being designated in Hornell, not a WCB customer center. It is anticipated that videoconferencing would be needed 2-3 working days per month in Hornell.

The closure of the Hornell WCB hearing site has created disproportionate hardships in this region. Over the last twenty years, other workers' compensation offices have closed in Wellsville and Belmont (Allegany County), Bath and Corning (Steuben County) and Mount Morris (Livingston County) leaving Hornell as the one existing hearing site, precisely because of its location. Requiring injured, disabled and handicapped workers to travel 65+ miles one way is a hardship that ought to be avoided if possible.

This is a severe blow to rural services in the Southern Tier. The work- ers' compensation system is often the only thing protecting our injured workers from the certain financial failure, and the undeniable family and psychological problems that inevitably follow joblessness and resulting poverty.

This WCB Hornell site closure makes it difficult for those least able to care for themselves by limiting their access to a fair hearing by forc- ing rural residents who often have lower benefits than non-rural resi- dents in the state, to navigate to the more urban areas for a fair hear- ing at other sites.

Closing the Hornell WCB site has had a detrimental effect on the injured, the disabled, the handicapped and the rural working poor; the groups that the workers comp program strives to help.

This bill will ensure that those least able to care for themselves have equal access to justice by providing a WCB hearing site in Hornell that can be available each month to hear cases from residents in the region.

For all of the aforementioned reasons it is imperative that this bill pass in order to provide essential serviced to the over 75,000 residents of the Southern Tier catchment area.

Legislative history

New bill.

Fiscal implications

Minimal cost to the state.

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately.