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DLI highlights worker rehabilitation, compliance training and special compensation fund cases
Summary
Commissioner Blissenbach highlighted return-to-work services, compliance training for self-insured employers and the special compensation fund that covers workers injured while employed by uninsured employers.
At the Minnesota Senate Labor Committee hearing, Nicole Blissenbach, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, described several workers’ compensation activities and recent case examples to illustrate the department’s work.
Blissenbach said the department’s vocational rehabilitation unit (VRU) helps injured workers return to work by providing medical management, vocational counseling and placement assistance. She described a case in which an injured worker with a severe concussion was limited in travel but, after VRU assistance, returned to work as a paraprofessional in a local school district.
On compliance, Blissenbach described a spring 2024 effort by the compliance, records and training unit (CRT) that identified selected self-insured employers and claim administrators with high counts of prohibited-practice penalties. The unit provided individualized training—three hours over two days—that led to a significant drop in subsequent violations, the commissioner said.
Blissenbach also described a serious special compensation fund case: an employee suffered an amputation after a meat-grinder injury while the employer lacked active workers’ compensation insurance. The special compensation fund provided wage-loss benefits, medical management and return-to-work assistance; the fund later seeks reimbursement from the uninsured employer, she said.
The commissioner explained the workers’ compensation advisory council’s structure: six business and six labor representatives appointed by the legislative caucuses and the governor, plus representatives of the Minnesota AFL-CIO and the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. By statute (chapter 176), the council recommends legislation and advises the department; council proposals require majority support from each of the business and labor delegations to move forward.
Committee members did not take formal action on the items presented but asked follow-up questions about rate comparisons, interjurisdictional differences and how uninsured-employer costs allocate to the special compensation fund.
