Fusco, Brandenstein & Rada participate in Two Day Public Employee Federation Program

On Thursday, April 27th, Vic Fusco and Richard Brandenstein joined Region 12 of the New York State Public Employees Federation as panelists in the union's Workers Compensation Navigator Program. The purpose of the program is to educate union leaders such as shop stewards, counselors, and others to assist members in "navigating" the Workers' Compensation system and to help members avoid the common errors that cause claims to be denied or delayed. Other participants included Ed Ruff, Advocate for Injured Workers of the New York State Workers Compensation Board, Ted Vasquez, Bernard Kahn and Rocco Brindisi of the State Insurance Fund, Art Wilcox the Health and Safety Director of the New York State AFL-CIO, and Dr. Linda Cocciarella of the Long Island Occupational and Environmental Health Center of Stony Brook University Medical Center. Topics included giving notice, securing proper medical documentation, filing of a claim, grounds for controversies, schedule loss awards, permanent partial disabilities, occupational diseases and proposed changes to the Workers' Compensation system.

On Friday, April 28th, the panel consisted of Milan Rada, Joe Ryan of the New York State and Local Employee's Retirement System, Elizabeth Schuster, Esq, of the PEF legal department and Fusco, Kahn, Vasquez, and Brindisi. Issues discussed included Article 13 benefits for PEF employees, the Medical Evaluation Network and its effect on benefits, the interplay of State Retirement benefits - regular, ordinary disability and accidental disability vis-a-vis Worker's Compensation and Social Security Disability benefits. The coordinator and moderator of the program was Shawn Bobb of the PEF Health and Safety Division. The classes were held at the Best Western Mill River Inn in Rockville Centre. PEF is one of the largest local white-collar unions in the United States and is New York's second-largest state-employee union.