GOP Lawmaker Nominated for Workers' Compensation Commission

Friday, March 17, 2017 | 0

Longtime Republican lawmaker Mark Formby, a state representative from Picayune, has been nominated to the three-member Workers’ Compensation Commission.

Rep. Mark Formby

Formby, 60, was instrumental in the 2012 passage of a law that tightened compensation rules for injured workers, The Clarion-Ledger reported.

The 2012 law specified that benefits would not go to a worker hurt while intoxicated by alcohol or drugs, and it authorized employers to test for drugs. The prior state law did not mention drugs or alcohol but prohibited compensation if “intoxication” was the “proximate cause of the injury.”

The newspaper said critics of the 2012 law predicted it would have an adverse effect on workers, the newspaper reported.

“The only thing that I have ever expected from workers’ comp is that it be fair to the employer and the employee,” Formby, 60, told the media. “I think our Workers’ Comp Commission has been reputable over the years.”

Gov. Phil Bryant nominated Formby for a commission term that upon confirmation would begin in mid-April and end in December 2022. Formby would succeed Liles Williams in the nearly $120,000-a-year post.

Formby has served in the state House since 1993 after working on U.S. Sen. Trent Lott’s Washington staff from 1987 to 1991, the Clarion-Ledger reported.