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Accident claims are being denied to those without Social Security numbers

By Ruth Morris
Staff writer
Posted May 22 2005

He came to put his backbone into the construction boom. He built roofs over breezy apartments and stately million-dollar homes.

Yet he lives in Lake Worth, in a dilapidated trailer with eight other immigrants. Water-stained carpets cover the floor, and the smell of latrines hangs in the humidity. He has affixed a picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe to the wall with construction tape.


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"We don't come here to live in luxury," said the heavyset Mexican, who requested anonymity because of his illegal immigration status. "We come to send money home."

Over the past three years he was able to send as much as $450 a week, most of his salary. The money built a solid brick home for his parents-- farmers who sold lemons and coconuts -- and covered his sister's nursing school fees.

The wire transfers dried up, however, on Feb. 15, when he fell almost two stories from a scaffold, landing on his back. According to the worker, his boss gave him $300 toward lost wages and then stopped answering the phone.

In the nameless, paperless world of illegal immigration, this is a common scenario. But the worker hit a new snag as his compensation claim landed on a growing pile of cases that have been delayed and sometimes dismissed because of a little known 2003 statute. The law, meant to streamline processing, requires workers to write their Social Security number on their compensation form. For the thousands of undocumented workers who fill posts in Florida's booming construction industry, the courts might as well ask for the moon.

Florida law states that workers are entitled to two-thirds of their salary plus medical benefits while convalescing from job-site accidents, regardless of their immigration status. But lawyers say the new statute is a roadblock for claimants who slipped into the United States illegally and aren't eligible for Social Security cards.

"This really has had a tremendous depressing impact on the number of cases filed," said Jonel Newman, an attorney at Florida Legal Services. "If a requirement of your filing is to either allege that you're employed illegally, ... or have your case stricken because you can't supply a Social Security number, they'll stay away. People are afraid."

Experts say they think the statute was a major factor in reducing Florida compensation claims by 15 percent last year, to 127,548. The dip raised red flags for immigration advocates, who say undocumented workers are already prone to flee home rather than assert their rights when workplace tragedies befall them.

For the 25-year-old Mexican who fell from the scaffold, the statute is simply another signpost in a language he doesn't understand. His body refuses to fully mend. Three months after his fall he can't lift, has trouble bending, and has yet to be seen by a doctor.

"I don't have money for a doctor," he said flatly.

Having come to Florida four years ago with $600 his mother gave him after pawning her jewelry, he also feels he can't go home empty handed. For the time being, he relies on his brother, who lives with him, to pay the bills. When he calls home, the sister training to become a nurse tells him she still has just enough money for books, but he's not sure he believes her.

Lawyers said they noticed a shift about 18 months ago when Deputy Chief Judge Scott Stephens of the Compensation Claims office in Tallahassee began rejecting claims filed without Social Security numbers. Some lawyers began attaching identity affidavits to their claims to circumvent the problem. Others argued the statute was a breach of privacy and should be struck.

In an attempt to reconcile the statute with workers' rights, Stephens began encouraging lawyers to file an additional form asking the government to assign a Social Security number, but the procedure is only two months old and hasn't been widely publicized.

"We do everything we can to be as neutral and as non-threatening as possible. Our job is to treat them equally," Stephens said of the hundreds of claims by undocumented workers that flow into his office every year. "When I decide to make an exception to a statute I'm kind of going out on a limb."

The statute is not unique to Florida, but its rigorous enforcement here has prompted a legal challenge that will be heard by the Florida Supreme Court. Known as the Cagnoli case, it pertains to a construction worker who fell into a hole at a work site, injuring his lower back and knee. His was one of the first claims Stephens rejected.

Andrea Cox, the lawyer for Ricardo Cagnoli, said she views Stephens' initiative to assign Social Security numbers for claimants who lack them as "an additional delay that makes these injured workers jump through an unnecessary loop. It's an administrative hurdle."

Frank Taddeo, a workers compensation lawyer who has seen several of his cases bog down over the Social Security issue, said the delays were effectively freezing medical payments, which in turn could weigh on taxpayers.

In one of his cases, an undocumented Mexican living in Homestead has been saddled with a $75,000 hospital bill after a wall fell on him at a construction site and crushed his legs. Taddeo's client hasn't seen a penny since his November accident.

"The people picking up this tab are the taxpayers. They're paying for the cost and burden of this injury," Taddeo said.

The client, who also requested anonymity, said he was fashioning his own physical therapy regime -- leg lifts and short walks around the block -- to avoid further medical costs. He lives in a tidy, one-bedroom apartment with nine other immigrants, his wheelchair folded in a corner. Space is so limited, the workers pack their belonging into plastic bags hung from nails. They sleep in shifts.

"The boss told me he'd pay me my salary until I was well, but he didn't," said the injured worker, an Indian from southern Mexico. He flashes a picture of his wife in a colorful skirt and thick braids, along with the four young children he left at home. "He'd always say that the [construction] company hadn't paid him."

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While the Social Security requirement applies to all jobs, it has had a significant effect in the construction sector, which recorded the largest number of work-related fatalities in the United States in 2003, the Bureau of Labor Statistic reported. Only agriculture, manufacturing and health care reported a higher rate of work-related injuries and illnesses.

In Florida, many immigrants who once worked in citrus groves and pepper fields are turning to construction as a chance to boost their pay. A worker can earn as much as $100 a day as a roofer, compared with $45 a day picking tomatoes.

But the higher pay comes with higher risks. Illegal immigrants often lack proper training, rights workers say, especially if their crew chiefs don't speak their language, and safety standards suffer. The Mexican who fell from the scaffold said he was never asked to wear a hard hat. Immigrants are also less likely to demand wage increases, or overtime pay, fattening profit margins.

Their illegal status also may weaken their claims. In at least one Florida case, a construction company has refused to pay a worker's compensation package on the grounds he misled his employer by presenting false documents when he was hired, although similar arguments were ruled unconstitutional in a Georgia case.

For lawyers like Gerald Rosenthal, a West Palm Beach attorney specializing in workers compensation cases, such trends make access to the courts critical.

"The safety practices normally afforded to American workers are being lost to this under economy we have in South Florida," he said. "We have to realize that this is in place ... and provide them with the benefits every worker gets. Generally employers hire them because they are the least powerful people."

By law, employers must verify workers' immigration status before hiring them. In practice, Florida's migrant-heavy industries, including harvesting, landscaping and construction, are rarely called to task. Lax labor contractors act as middlemen, supplying workers by the truckload. They ask few questions and pay in cash. When accidents occur, they vanish.

The Mexican convalescing in Lake Worth said he had never been asked for documents. Asked where his accident had occurred, he said he didn't remember the exact address, but he referred to a real estate catalogue he's saving to show his family what he'd been building in the United States. There are pictures of palm-fringed gardens and crystal-blue pools.

"Homes for rich people," he said with a tinge of pride.

Ruth Morris can be reached at rmorris@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4691.