L&I looking to ‘Nail’ a few contractors
The state’s Department of Labor & Industries has stepped up its pursuit of bad contractors and workers’ comp scofflaws with a new blog called “Nailed.”
Nailed has information on major fraud convictions, surveillance video from investigations and links to fraud-related news coverage. One of the entries covers an investigation that found a drywall contractor operating with 155 unreported workers, according to L&I. That case resulted in an assessment of $672,326 for workers’ comp premiums owed plus penalties.
In case you didn’t know, you shouldn’t do the following:
- Not paying L&I premiums.
- Overcharging L&I for medical services.
- Working while collecting time-loss from L&I.
- Filing a false L&I claim or falsifying a condition.
- Not registering as a contractor.
I know several people in the workers’ comp field that could tell a few stories. Perhaps we need to reward whistleblowers with anonymity and cash to encourage them to step forward. I bet the state would come out on the plus side of that idea.
Carl Hammersburg of L&I is the author of Nailed.
Welcome to the 
June 11th, 2010 at 8:43 am
Ben,
First off, I want to say thank you for the coverage, and for your efforts to keep people on the right side of the law. We do take tips anonymously, both through our website at http://www.fraud.lni.wa.gov or toll free at 1-888-811-5974. If you know anyone that has information, please send him or her my way. Thanks.