Thread: More on Calif. court ruling on worker's comp for squatters

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-c ... &cset=true

Court Backs Immigrants' Labor Rights
# In a Farmer Bros. case, state judges rule that people illegally hired can get workers' comp.

By Marc Lifsher, Times Staff Writer

Illegal immigrants hurt on the job are entitled to workers' compensation benefits, a state appeals court panel has ruled, upholding California's policy of granting workplace rights to undocumented employees.

Torrance coffee roaster Farmer Bros. Co. had sought to deny workers' comp benefits to an injured employee who was in the country illegally. The company argued that federal immigration laws superseded the state's system for treating victims of workplace injuries.

But the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles, in a ruling published late Monday, said federal immigration statutes didn't preempt state laws governing workers' comp insurance, minimum wage guarantees and occupational health and safety protections.

"California law has expressly declared immigration status irrelevant to the issue of liability to pay compensation to an injured worker," the court ruled, upholding an earlier decision by the state Workers' Compensation Appeals Board against Farmer Bros.

Experts said the unanimous ruling by the three-judge panel was the first time an appeals court in California had specifically upheld the right of illegal immigrants to receive medical care and disability benefits for on-the-job injuries.

A finding in favor of Farmer Bros. would have been "devastating" and "would have put hundreds of thousands of workers at real risk," said Merle Rabine, a commissioner on the workers' comp appeals board, which had previously ruled that illegal immigrants were entitled to benefits.

An estimated 2.6 million illegal immigrants live in California, according to the state Department of Finance.

Rabine said that the appeals court ruling, although a first for California, echoed decisions made in at least four other states that illegal immigrants were eligible for workplace protections.

Monday's decision is "definitely affirming both the common sense application of California law and what every other court in the country has routinely found: that federal immigration law does not preempt state workers' compensation laws," said Kari Krogseng, a San Leandro attorney who filed a brief in the case on behalf of the California Applicants' Attorneys Assn., which represents injured workers.

Farmer Bros. spokesman Jim Lucas declined to comment on the ruling. In court filings, however, the company argued that the employee, Rafael Ruiz, broke state insurance laws by using fraudulent identification papers to get hired and become eligible for workers' comp benefits.

The court rejected the argument, noting that no state or federal law required Ruiz to be "a lawfully documented alien to be an employee entitled to workers' compensation benefits."

According to his lawyer's case file, Ruiz, 35, injured his shoulders, back, neck and hands by repeatedly lifting heavy sacks of coffee beans.

Employers such as Farmer Bros. generally fight what they consider to be questionable workers' comp claims in an effort to prevent potential fraud and keep insurers from increasing their annual premiums.

California law has been clear in providing workplace protections regardless of an employee's immigration status, said Susan Gard, a spokeswoman for the state Division of Workers' Compensation. Lifting the mandate to pay minimum wage or provide medical care for injuries could create an "incentive to hire illegal workers," Gard said.

Farmer Bros.' contention that illegal immigrants should be denied workers' comp benefits is "not a widely supported stance" among California employers, said David DePaolo, president of Workcompcentral.com, a news and legal research website in Camarillo.

David Schwartz, past president of the California Applicants' Attorneys Assn., suggested that some employers might have been reluctant to back Farmer Bros. because they "are hiring these people knowing they are undocumented … and could get in trouble."

Advocates for tougher immigration control criticized the ruling and called for the federal government to get tough in penalizing employers who hire illegal immigrants.

"We can't reward people for breaking the law," said Andy Ramirez, a spokesman for Friends of the Border Patrol, a Covina-based group that sends members to patrol the U.S. border with Mexico.

"Employers of illegal aliens should be charged and prosecuted to the full extent of the law," he said.

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Here's my take on this. While I'm in the camp that illegals shouldn't get squat, but at the same time I think this ruling might work in our sides favor. We know the illegal aliens are con-artist. Maybe the more times they file these worker comp claims and the businesses that hire them continue to have to pay through the nose then the less likely they might hire them. Just imagine if the judge said that no illegal workers get comp, then these businesses would continue to hire these illegals with impunity with no fear of being punished. It sickens me to see these illegals get rewarded, but at the same time I want to see these businesses get their comeuppance because they are the biggest faciliators of this invasion that's being forced down our throats. If the businesses were forced to stop hiring illegals then about 95 percent of the illegal alien population would leave on their own.

I just can't side for either side on this one, but I do hope the illegals sue the businesses into the ground. Hey I guess that cheap labor won't be so cheap after all. Can you believe the gall of these businesses claiming they didn't know that those they hire are illegal? Give me a break. They have a pilot program run by the federal government where they can do a background check on the SS number to see if it's fraudulent or not. It takes like 2 mins to do. They know they are illegal and they don't care, but when the illegal gets hurt then all of a sudden they want protection from the same laws they thumb their noses at in order to hire the illegal. That just shows you that all they want to do is exploit these cheap workers as slaves so they can use and abuse as they see fit. This case just totally destroys the argument that these illegals just do the jobs that nobody else wants.

I agree. The illegals shouldn't be working here. But the employers who are hiring them need to pay them overtime when they are worked over 40 hours and if they get hurt on the job they should be able to file a workman's comp claim.

Like you said, maybe when the employers find that their cheap labor isn't so cheap, they will quit hiring them.

Once the jobs go, most of the illegals will go.

I just want to point out that while we are all talking about this ruling, one that is not being talked about is getting away under the cover of this discussion.


That would be:
Once the illegal files a claim, and he is discovered as being illegally working, will the state enforce the fraudulent document laws as well? We could easily spin this ruling around and let the state be on the defensive here. Just agree with the courts interpretation and ask if, when, or why not, those who are discovered to have provided fraudulent documents are prosecuted.
And make this one ruling the rally for that. Ask if this one illegal has been, will be, or will not be prosecuted for his state crime?