Last week I posted an item about the Bureau of Labor Statistics' recent report on injuries and illnesses among workers, which showed that public sector workers missed work at far higher rates than those in the private sector, even when they work in similar jobs. One explanation, I noted, was that in many places public sector workers enjoy more generous
sick time and richer disability benefits than private workers. "Incentives matter, including those that
pay you not to work."There's plenty to add to this, as even a casual glance at the news on any given day will reveal. One problem is that disability systems have become a favored target of negotiations between unions and politicians. Too many of these systems are rigged in favor of employees and against the taxpayer, so that it's easy to become 'disabled' on the public dime.
Examples abound. The website NewJerseywatchdog.org, for instance, has been reporting the case of state Assemblyman David P. Rible, who retired as a local police officer at age 31 with disability payments due to a bad back and has collected some $650,000 over the last decade, though he runs in 5-k races at the Jersey shore, recently participated in a local 'dancing with the stars' event and is regularly seen working the exercise bike at his local gym.The problem in Jersey, as in other places, is that Rible has apparently never been called back in for a reexamination to see if he's healed sufficiently to go back to work.
One problem is that even in cases where a worker can be reexamined, the system is rigged in the worker's favor. New York taxpayers found this out recently after the New York Post exposed the case of a firefighter collecting a $74,624 disability pension but competing in mixed martial arts. After the Post's expose prompted the disability board to order an independent medical review of the case, doctors judged the firefighter able to go back to work. No matter. The disability board in New York is stacked with fire union officials, who voted against having him return to work.
Another way to insure easy access to disability pensions is to simply urge friendly legislators to stack the deck in the worker's favor. California did that back a decade ago when Gov. Gray Davis and a union-friendly state legislature passed a series of bills expanding the number of state employees who could claim disability retirement benefits by increasing the number of ailments automatically classed as job-related to include HIV, tuberculosis, and lower-back pain, as I explained here.
Systems like that rigged in favor of the worker offer pretty powerful incentives not to work.
One problem is that even in cases where a worker can be reexamined, the system is rigged in the worker's favor. New York taxpayers found this out recently after the New York Post exposed the case of a firefighter collecting a $74,624 disability pension but competing in mixed martial arts. After the Post's expose prompted the disability board to order an independent medical review of the case, doctors judged the firefighter able to go back to work. No matter. The disability board in New York is stacked with fire union officials, who voted against having him return to work.
Another way to insure easy access to disability pensions is to simply urge friendly legislators to stack the deck in the worker's favor. California did that back a decade ago when Gov. Gray Davis and a union-friendly state legislature passed a series of bills expanding the number of state employees who could claim disability retirement benefits by increasing the number of ailments automatically classed as job-related to include HIV, tuberculosis, and lower-back pain, as I explained here.
Systems like that rigged in favor of the worker offer pretty powerful incentives not to work.
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