Foreign Dependents Have Rights to Workers' Comp Aid

Knoxville News Sentinel ^ | 01/20/07 | Associated Press

[TennesseeGirl]

KnoxNews

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/state/article/0,1406,KNS_348_5292769,00.html Foreign dependents have rights to workers' comp aid By Associated Press January 20, 2007

NASHVILLE - Foreign dependents of employees covered by the workers' compensation system are eligible to receive benefits if the worker is killed, the Tennessee Supreme Court has ruled. The case hinged on the 2002 death of Jaime Humberto Diaz Pedraza, a Mexican national who fell while working at a Nashville construction site.

Pedraza's parents in Zempoala, Mexico, sought workers' compensation benefits, claiming that they were wholly supported by the money their son wired to them between 1999 and his death. Article truncated

[TennesseeGirl]

Readers sometimes have to register to read articles. Just put in gobblety-gook info; I did.

[Vigilanteman]

Let's say I get killed on the job and don't have an immediate family to support. Can millions of welfare consumers sue for my benefits because they are already being supported by my tax dollars?

Maybe it's a dumb question, because I do have an immediate family to support and millions of loafers are already taking a bite out of my paycheck to support theirs as well.

[Bob J]

Well, if the guy was here legally (green card), paying his taxes and work comp, and, if the WC laws don't say anything about dependents having to live here or be US citizens, then the court probably ruled correctly.

The state needs to amend it's WC laws.

[gaijin]

1. MexIllegals get in-state college tuition, out-of-state Americans do not.

2. MexIllegals might soon prove able to apply for SS benefits after just 3 years of illegally working in the US, then go on the dole. OR, return home, and continue getting those benefits sent to them.

3. You can import 500 lbs of pot to the US, run, get shot, have the US gov't track you down and ASK you to bust the guys who did their job, send them to prison, THEN sue the US gov't who did all this for you for $1,000,000.

What did I miss?

[Kaslin]

I don't have any problem with that, if they are legal residents and not illegals

[TennesseeGirl]

Illegal. The local station, WBIR, reported he was illegal. That wasn't mentioned in the AP article.

[McGavin999]

Now, the Worker's Compensation Insurance carrier needs to sue the employer of the illegal and the employer should be prohibited from finding a decent rate or carrier for his WC coverage. Let him go out and get one of those guys who will charge him with a 2.0 modifier.

[TennesseeGirl]

Amen. It would never have gone to the TN Supreme Court if the employer hadn't employed illegals.