The Arkansas Times January 12, 2001
Pee on your own time
By Max Brantley
The corporate community, not satisfied with cheap workers comp
insurance (thanks to increasing legal obstacles to on-the-job injury
claims) is turning the screws, with help from the governor and the state
Workers Compensation Commission.
A recent decision, on appeal to the Arkansas Court of Appeals,
illustrates. A clerical worker from Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield took a
restroom break last January. The bathroom on the ninth floor of her
building was full. She went up to the 10th floor. On the way back down,
she slipped and fell, injuring her ankle, knee and leg.
On a 2-to-1 vote, the state Workers Compensation Commission
denied her claim. It said no employment duties were being carried out,
thus, under a strict reading of the 1993 pro-management amendments to
the workers comp law, her injuries were not covered.
The 1993 law, said the commission, revoked the "personal comfort
doctrine." This doctrine held that employees were still covered, within
limits, while engaged in acts "which minister to personal comfort."
The injured Blue Cross worker's attorney, Philip Wilson of Little Rock,
puts it squarely: The Workers Comp Commission seems to be saying
employees "should simply bring a chamber pot and place it by their work
station." Better, Wilson argues, to admit that bathroom breaks make
happier employees. So the breaks, at least indirectly, advance the
employer's interest and should be covered against injury.
The Commission made a point of saying its decision did not "disallow"
bathroom breaks. But it explicitly rejected the notion that a bathroom
break was "inherently necessary" for job performance. I swear.
Compassionate conservatism this isn't. It's also stupid. When
bathroom trips aren't accepted as part of the job, the circumstance invites
lawsuits over bathroom and walkway safety. The no-fault workers comp
system was supposed to avoid such workplace disputes.
The larger immediate issue is worker welfare. The anti-worker votes in
the bathroom case came from the management representative on the
Commission, Mike Wilson, and Eldon Coffman, the nominally neutral
chairman. Coffman has been pro-management since being wood-
shedded by Gov. Mike Huckabee's chief of staff, Brenda Turner. Turner
also forced Coffman to fire an administrative law judge who occasionally
ruled in favor of injured workers
The dissenter in the bathroom case, labor representative Pat
Humphrey, is gone. Huckabee wouldn't reappoint her. If the Senate
doesn't stand in the way, Huckabee will replace Humphrey with -- I kid
you not -- Brenda Turner's husband, Terry. Turner must overcome
questions about eligibility, being a long-time Texas resident, and
surmount the indelicacy of Huckabee pushing a total of $180,000 in state
salaries into the household of his old church pals, the Turners. But that's
not the real rub. It's hard not to assume Terry Turner, though nominally a
labor rep, will reflect the management bias of his patron, Huckabee, and
his own spouse. In other words: get your chamber pot.
