Worker’s Compensation Advisory Council will take written comments into mid-January

The state council for employee insurance will take written comments in 2023 as the next Legislature session approaches.

The Worker’s Compensation Advisory Council will take written comments until Monday, Jan. 16, through email or Chair Steve Peters’ mailbox in Madison, the Department of Workforce Development announced.

The council held a public hearing on Thursday as one of the first steps toward the biennial “agreed-upon bill” cycle to change Wisconsin’s Worker’s Compensation Act, which has been modified through the years since it passed in 1911.

“Input from the public, both during the hearing and in written comments, provides an important contribution in the process that results in positive changes to our state’s worker’s compensation system,” department secretary-designee Amy Pechacek said in a statement. “Members of the advisory council give careful consideration to all comments received as they work collaboratively to develop and send the Legislature a bill that, in line with decades of tradition, reflect agreement across employer and worker interests.”

Stakeholders representing labor, management, insurance, legal and other areas gave their testimony to council members, officials said. Labor and management members inside the council discussed amendment proposals and decided together on an agreed-upon bill with changes.

Gov. Tony Evers signed the latest worker’s compensation agreed-upon bill in April with approval from the Legislature, officials said. The most recent bill included an increase to maximum weekly rates for permanent partial disability, recognition for employees who serve elderly and disabled people as fiscal agents, wage expansion limits for part-time workers who change jobs or switch to part time 12 months before an injury and an amendment changing the legal definition of “employer” for those who employee three people at a time.

Five employee representatives and five employer representatives serve as voting members of the council. Three insurer representatives serve as non-voting members and a single department representative usually serves as the chair.