New Mexico lawmakers are attempting to close a loophole that allows employees to receive workers' compensation benefits for injuries sustained at work while intoxicated or stoned, according to a story in the New Mexico Watchdog.
The story cites an example in 2006 where a Las Cruces city sanitation employee fell off a garbage truck and injured his head. Although he had a blood alcohol level of .12 at the time of his fall, nearly double the legal limit in New Mexico, an appeals court allowed him $90,000, or 90% of his workers' comp claim.
"The intent of the law called for a penalty to be built in if an employee showed up for work drunk and got into a car accident, but how the law is applied now, it's very hard for that to go into effect," Darin Childers, director of the New Mexico Workers' Compensation Advisory Council, told the New Mexico Watchdog.
Rep. Dennis Roch (R-Texico), who introduced the bill to amend the state's Workers' Compensation Act, says in the story that the bill is "a personal responsibility issue."
Read more from Rob Nikolewski at the New Mexico Watchdog.
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