What does it mean for a state to be an "opt-out" state for workers' compensation? The majority of states place requirements on employers to cover employees under a workers' compensation policy to help them with things like medical bills and lost wages when the employees suffer injury. This is not true in Texas, however. Here, employers are not required to carry any form of workers' comp insurance. Because workers' comp nonsubscribers are allowed to come up with their own alternative workers' comp plans, employees often run into problems. An investigation by the nonprofit ProPublica and NPR found that many independent insurance plans in Texas only cover care for an average of two years. This is in direct contrast to workers' compensation insurance, which lasts as long as a worker needs it to. Furthermore, employer-created plans sometimes will not pay for things like wheelchair vans or for complications due to occupational diseases caused by exposure to dust, mold and even asbestos. Worse still, appeals are often controlled by the employers, and payments for catastrophic injury and wrongful death are can be strictly limited.

Around 75,000 Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) and Urban Social Health Activist (USHA) workers staged a state-wide strike on Thursday to demand permanent jobs and a higher honorarium. US242) and 24,000 rupees for senior workers (Shahyogini) until they are made permanent. Other demands included the government paying the medical expenses of family members of ASHA and USHA workers, and five million rupees ex-gratia if workers die as a result of their employment. They presented a memorandum of their demands to the Bhopal Collector’s office. Contract workers from various pumping stations in Madurai protested outside the residence of their contractor on June 28 demanding immediate payment of three months’ outstanding wages. There are about 360 pumping station workers in the city who are employed on a contract basis. Pakistan Railway workers demonstrated outside the Peshawar Press Club on Monday against the government’s proposed rationalisation plan. The Pakistan Railway Employees Union claimed that the plan would lay off or force into retirement hundreds of workers.

Pakistan Railways is among the many state-run enterprises earmarked for privatisation under the government’s agreement with the International Monetary Fund. Despite the privatisation program affecting an overwhelming majority of government sector workers, the unions have refused to initiate joint industrial action but limited their opposition to toothless appeals to the government. Health workers including nurses and paramedics from government-run hospitals and other medical services in Islamabad protested on Wednesday for the third consecutive day to demand the government pay a health risk allowance. The frontline workers, who are battling COVID-19, say that they have not been paid the allowance for 11 months. Up until March, nearly 150 health workers have died after contracting the virus. The cash-strapped government, in an attempt avoid paying the allowance, has made it conditional on workers having been given a COVID-19 vaccination. Vaccine availability in the country is limited with only a few able to afford the vaccine in the private market. The government commitment, however, was a fraud.

After several workers received the vaccine, the government refused to pay the allowance, which prompted the protests. Health workers have threatened to boycott all COVID-19 related services, including the vaccination program and virus testing even at Islamabad airport, if the government refuses pay the allowance. Garment workers from several factories at Savar and Ulail in Dhaka district demonstrated on Monday to demand public or factory-arranged transport to workplaces. Transport has been reduced due to restrictions imposed by the government during the COVID-19 pandemic. Protesting garments workers, who were joined by others, blocked the Dhaka-Aricha highway’s Radio colony and Savar Bazar bus-stand areas. Workers blamed factory authorities for not providing transport, saying they were forced to use rickshaws and other vehicles at a high cost. Many workers said they had been forced to walk to their plants. Garment workers have demanded that their factories close during a government-imposed lockdown which became effective from Thursday.

What You Need To Know About Workers Comp

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