Bleak Future for Injured Worker

Wednesday, June 8, 2011 | 0

By Julius Young
Boxer & Gerson

Getting away for a while is a good tonic for keeping perspective on things.

I've just returned from Sardinia.

One of the first calls I took was from a workers' comp client who is freaked about his future.

Before his industrial injury, his occupation was very physical. Now, after his injury, physically demanding jobs are out. With little education, he faces a steep hill to climb.

We talked a bit. He's discouraged. It's difficult for him to see any hopeful economic future. His workers' comp settlement will not come close to compensating his true economic losses.

In his California Central Valley county, unemployment is over 12%. He has no family safety net, and no savings. There is no retraining program available to him. His house mortgage is "under water". He has no health insurance any more.

Meanwhile, commodity costs are up. Food prices rise. Gas prices rise. Medical costs if he gets sick rise.

His world is the world that concerns Wal-Mart executives. A world where Wal-Mart shoppers "have no money", leading to slower sales at the retail giant.

He's not paying attention to the debate over whether there will be a vote to increase the national debt ceiling. Or whether there will be Q3, so-called "quantitative easing", i.e. printing money.

He's not concerned about bond yield spreads, or whether Greece is forced by bondholders to abandon the Eurozone in favor of a return to the drachma, or how a strong or weak dollar might affect him personally.

He wouldn't know George Soros from Pimco.

But it turns out he's got a lot of company around the world. In Spain, unemployment is above 20%. The mayor of one Spanish town has suggested that the drug trade is an option for the unemployed youth of his region.

In Greece, the public is being warned that a further bailout by Euro authorities may include tax collection by non-Greek Eurozone designees.

Like a swirling tornado, the negativity threatens to suck the energy right out of the building.

My client's economic future is bleak. Let's not sugarcoat it. There is no politically significant or credible approach being employed to remedy the situation.

It's a situation shared by many an unemployed injured worker around the world.

<i>Julius Young is an applicants' attorney for the Boxer & Gerson law firm in Oakland. This column was reprinted with his permission from his blog, http://www.workerscompzone.com</i>