Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation settles with thousands of employers

7/23/2014

A years-long legal fight over allegations that hundreds of thousands of Ohio employers were overcharged workers' compensation premiums from 2001 to 2009 was settled last night.

The state agreed to create a $420 million fund to pay claims to employers '” many of them small businesses '” that had sued over the premiums. The Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation and a group called Pay Us Back Ohio BWC announced the agreement.

The $420 million is about half of the $860 million that a Cleveland judge had ordered the bureau to pay in March 2013.

An appeals court upheld the bulk of that ruling this spring but ordered a recalculation of the damages that reduced the award to $651 million. The bureau also had been pursuing an appeal with the Ohio Supreme Court.

Both sides praised the settlement last night.

For the full article, visit the Columbus Dispatch‘‍s website here.