FULL TESTIMONY 1993 LABOR AND PUBLIC EMPLOYEES MARCH 11, 1993 HB6939,HB7152,and HB7172 

REP. LAWLOR:  Okay.  Thank you.  Any other questions?
    Next is David Greenleaf, then Dennis.  I think it
    says Diamond.  It's hard to read.  I apologize for
    the names that are being butchered, but that's
    because the handwriting is as good as my
    pronunciation.  Ray Henion.  Then Roger Joyce.
    Then Tammy MacFayden.
DAVID GREENLEAF:  My name is David Greenleaf.  I live
    in Manchester, Connecticut.  I've been receiving
    workers' compensation since the 16th of January,
    1991.  On the 11th of January, we had a snowstorm
    in this state.  When I returned to work, it was a
    Friday night.  When I returned to work on that
    Monday morning, the company had not plowed the
    parking lot.
    When I returned to work, the snow had turned to ice
    on Monday.  We had two or three people, three
    people fell, two that I didn't see, one that I did
    fell right in front of a boss and the boss laughed.
    When I went to my truck, I slipped, nothing
    happened.  I returned to the warehouse that
    afternoon, and I went to the safety supervisor to
    express my concern about the parking lot not being
    plowed or sanded.  His exact words I won't ever
    forget:  Yes, Dave, we've had 20 or 30 people come
    in and complain, but they don't want to spend the
    money.
    The next morning conditions hadn't changed.  I
    walked to work and that was the end of my right
    knee.  I tore the interior interior cruciate
    ligament in my right knee, and I've had four
    operations in one year because of it.  A day after
    the anniversary of the year of the accident, one
    day after the year of the accident, I was
    terminated from my job that I'd been employed at
    for 12 years.
    That same year, this Legislature passed the law or
    the law went through about cutting the payments to
    people on workers' comp.  It didn't affect me
    because I was already grandfathered in, but it
    doesn't matter I still had to file bankruptcy
    because I was unable to work any overtime or go out
    and look for a part time job because of my injury.
    Also last year the Supreme Court ruled that it was
    unconstitutional that the law that the Stat of
    Connecticut passed that employers had to pay their
    employees for medical benefits was
    unconstitutional.
    I received this yesterday.  I have no more medical
    benefits.  I got hurt on company property on
    company time because of their admitted negligence,
    and I can't do anything about it.  I've got to take
    whatever the workman' comp commissioner, what my
    lawyer and what the insurance company tells me I'm
    entitled to.  That's it.  Why should, I can't sue
    the company that destroyed my life really.  Why
    should an employee or an employer plow the yard
    when the consequences of doing so doesn't mean that
    much to them?
    Because their responsibility ends once the premium
    is paid to the insurance company.  On January 15,
    my life was changed forever.  My future is very
    much in doubt.  I've worked since I was eight years
    old delivering the old Hartford Times, and I've
    only had six jobs in my life and now at 42, today's
    my birthday, and now I've got to go and find
    another job.  This is something that we need to
    take a look at.  We're talking about the safety
    supervision of employers and employees.  What
    difference does it make if nothing's done about it?
    We're hurting people.  I regret for the rest of my
    life.  I've got to have a new knee eventually.
    I've got pain every day.  I can hardly walk.  I've
    got to live with this every day.  The insurance
    company pays their premium and the employer pays
    the premium and that's it.  I've got to rest with
    this for the rest of my life.  We've seen people
    walking in here today with bad injuries, real
    serious injuries.  They're not because of some
    negligence or because of an injury that's done to
    them.
    I went to work that to do my job, and I wasn't able
    to.  I was not given the opportunity to fulfill my
    life.  My life is gone.  I was supposed to get a
    check yesterday from comp and it hasn't come
    through yet.  I've already paid my rent.  Now I've
    got to wait to see if I get a check there today or
    my check's going to bounce.  That's what we have to
    put up with.  Yes, we need jobs in this state, but
    let's if we're going to to take deductions away
    from us and give it back to the employer, let's let
    the employees have a little gift of if it's an
    employer's fault that the employer is negligent and
    they admit it, let us sue them to get our money
    back.  Thank you.