By Rep. Maria Chappelle-Nadal
Missouri House of Representatives
District 72, University City, Missouri

Recently, there has been a renewed interest in reforming Missouri?s worker?s compensation system. A bill is already making its way through the Senate that launches an outright attack on Senior Citizens (Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 1, Section 287.270). Instead of honoring the seniors who remain a vital part of our workforce after they reach retirement, this bill will penalize our seniors by cutting their pensions if they have the misfortune of being injured on the job.

While the bill will have wide-reaching effects on thousands of Missouri workers, it?s effect would be particularly cruel in the way it handles senior citizens who remain in the workforce. For some seniors, working past the age of retirement is a necessity that enables them to make ends meet in the face of the rising cost of living. SCS SB 1 is just another attack on the already eroding benefits that Missouri?s seniors have a right to.

Under the worker?s compensation reforms proposed in SCS SB 1, seniors would have to choose between their social security entitlement or compensation for injuries caused by their employment.

As the system stands now, any worker injured because of his or her job or because of unsafe working conditions is entitled to a set amount to help the worker get healed and back on the job. SCS SB 1 will deny a senior that help in the face of lost wages and rising healthcare costs.

This legislation is heartless and narrow-sighted. It is a serious attack on worker?s rights, putting the burden of unsafe working conditions on the senior employee instead of on the employer. This is a disgraceful way to treat our senior citizens. The fact that this bill will leave a senior to live on less if injured is an insult to the men and women who have worked for years to drive Missouri?s economy. We need to treat our seniors with dignity by protecting them while they continue to give more.