Major Anti-Workers’ Compensation Legislation is Finally Ruled Unconstitutional

Recently, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled against a provision that allowed companies to opt-out of the state’s workers’ compensation requirements. Union Services Access President Sam Pond calls the ruling “a critical victory in the national fight to protect injured workers’ rights.”

The Oklahoma high court found that the Opt-Out Act was unconstitutional, denied equal protection to the state’s workers, and denied injured workers the right of access to the court system. Justice Joseph Watt wrote that the law had given employers “the authority to single out their injured employees for inequitable treatment.”

At Union Services Access, we’re fighting every day to make sure that such grossly unfair legislation never becomes a reality in Pennsylvania. President Sam Pond comments, “Coverage opt-outs, along with other attacks such as evidence based medicine, are part of the ongoing war being waged on the rights of injured workers… We can only hope that the ruling by the Oklahoma Supreme Court is a trend in support of humanity that will continue to be realized in other states.”