In their latest article for The Legal Intelligencer, “The Grand Bargain Becomes the Grand Betrayal,” Managing Partner Sam Pond and Attorney Maureen “Morty” Cassidy explain the history of the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act and its ongoing erosion. One of the greatest political compromises in history, the Grand Bargain exchanged the constitutional right of an injured worker to sue their employer for the guarantee of workers’ compensation benefits to cover lost wages and medical treatment. Today, that certainty and the humanitarian foundation of the Act itself are under constant attack across America.
“Changes in policy are making it harder for workers to receive the benefits they deserve. We have all given up our right to sue our employer in the event of an injury or death, but it has not made anything more certain,” Sam and Morty explain. “A trade was made, a bargain struck and it must be kept or abandoned altogether, but a farce and shell of a system cannot be allowed.”
They explain in detail how a long line of alleged “reforms” to the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act, most recently represented by House Bill 18, seek to remove the rights of injured workers and deny them adequate medical care, turning the Grand Bargain into a Grand Betrayal.
“We could not be further from certainty in light of the landscape ahead of us and the battles injured workers fight every day,” Sam and Morty conclude. “As advocates for our clients, we need to continue to fight against the constitutional violations and inequities we face.”
To read the full article, click here.