Employer Info
Important information for current and prospective employers regarding the Basic Crafts ADR Program.
What is the Basic Crafts Workers’ Compensation Program?
1. California law allows unions and employers to provide an alternate workers’ compensation program that replaces, through collective bargaining, much of the overburdened and litigious state administered workers’ compensation system.
2. The Carpenters, Laborers and Operating Engineers in northern California have joined to together to negotiate an alternate workers’ compensation program with AGC, UCON, and CEA.
3. The program is administered by a joint labor-management trust called the Basic Crafts Workers’ Compensation Benefits Trust Fund. The program applies to any employer that chooses to sign on to the Basic Crafts Program.
What is the Program designed to do?
1. Reduce workers’ compensation costs by preventing and promptly resolving disputes and promoting job safety and early return to work, and thereby reduce workers’ compensation premium,
2. Provide improved access to high-quality medical treatment and prompt compensation to those employees claiming work-related injuries,
3. Provide a better method to resolve disputes, and thus reduce the number and severity of disputes between employees and employers regarding work-related injury claims,
4. Provide workers’ compensation coverage in a way that improves labor management relationships, and
5. To achieve these goals on a long-term basis.
Why are there fewer disputes in this program?
1. With access to an Ombudsman, injured employees have immediate access to a workers’ compensation professional who will act as a liaison with the workers’ compensation carrier, thereby resolving disputes early and avoiding unnecessary litigation.
2. Claims in the traditional system often tend to drag on, leading to unnecessary antagonism between the parties and otherwise avoidable litigation.
3. The Ombudsman provides a mechanism to avoid this frequent delay in the provision of treatment and benefits, and the resulting lost work time.
4. Treatment and benefits are delivered promptly and are carefully monitored by the Basic Crafts professional staff.
5. The Ombudsman will intervene before things escalate. Less lost time means fewer lost wages for the injured worker and lower disability costs and lower job costs for the employer.
How is the trust funded?
The Basic Crafts Workers’ Compensation Benefits Trust Fund is funded through a 7 cent per hour worked contribution by contributing employers.
Are the employers in the program insured or self-insured or both?
1. At this time, only employers insured by a participating Insurance Carrier are allowed into the program. Participating Insurance Carriers include State Compensation Insurance Fund, Alaska National, Cypress, Redwood, Zurich, Old Republic, and AIG.
2. When the program is well established, consideration will be given to allowing additional insurance companies to participate, and the needs of self-insured employers will be addressed as well.
3. How do employers join the program? At the time of renewal of their workers’ compensation policy (the anniversary date) employers may request a quote from a participating Insurance Carrier, and decide whether to join the program.
What is the Basic Crafts Workers’ Compensation Program?
1. California law allows unions and employers to provide an alternate workers’ compensation program that replaces, through collective bargaining, much of the overburdened and litigious state administered workers’ compensation system.
2. The Carpenters, Laborers and Operating Engineers in northern California have joined to together to negotiate an alternate workers’ compensation program with AGC, UCON, and CEA.
3. The program is administered by a joint labor-management trust called the Basic Crafts Workers’ Compensation Benefits Trust Fund. The program applies to any employer that chooses to sign on to the Basic Crafts Program.
What is the Program designed to do?
1. Reduce workers’ compensation costs by preventing and promptly resolving disputes and promoting job safety and early return to work, and thereby reduce workers’ compensation premium,
2. Provide improved access to high-quality medical treatment and prompt compensation to those employees claiming work-related injuries,
3. Provide a better method to resolve disputes, and thus reduce the number and severity of disputes between employees and employers regarding work-related injury claims,
4. Provide workers’ compensation coverage in a way that improves labor management relationships, and
5. To achieve these goals on a long-term basis.
Why are there fewer disputes in this program?
1. With access to an Ombudsman, injured employees have immediate access to a workers’ compensation professional who will act as a liaison with the workers’ compensation carrier, thereby resolving disputes early and avoiding unnecessary litigation.
2. Claims in the traditional system often tend to drag on, leading to unnecessary antagonism between the parties and otherwise avoidable litigation.
3. The Ombudsman provides a mechanism to avoid this frequent delay in the provision of treatment and benefits, and the resulting lost work time.
4. Treatment and benefits are delivered promptly and are carefully monitored by the Basic Crafts professional staff.
5. The Ombudsman will intervene before things escalate. Less lost time means fewer lost wages for the injured worker and lower disability costs and lower job costs for the employer.
How is the trust funded?
The Basic Crafts Workers’ Compensation Benefits Trust Fund is funded through a 7 cent per hour worked contribution by contributing employers.
Are the employers in the program insured or self-insured or both?
1. At this time, only employers insured by a participating Insurance Carrier are allowed into the program. Participating Insurance Carriers include State Compensation Insurance Fund, Alaska National, Cypress, Redwood, Zurich, Old Republic, and AIG.
2. When the program is well established, consideration will be given to allowing additional insurance companies to participate, and the needs of self-insured employers will be addressed as well.
3. How do employers join the program? At the time of renewal of their workers’ compensation policy (the anniversary date) employers may request a quote from a participating Insurance Carrier, and decide whether to join the program.