WHAAAAT!!! "Iraqis Can Collect U.S. Workers' Insurance"
WASHINGTON - Just like workers in the United States, Iraqis employed by U.S. contractors in their country can collect workers' compensation insurance — whether they're hurt by a ladder collapse in Baghdad or a car bomb in Mosul.
But in a country where anti-American insurgents can scan the mail, many Iraqis receive their benefits in blank envelopes because a check from the United States can be a ticket to a worker's execution.
"These people can be marked for taking money from Westerners," said Sara Payne, senior vice president for the Rutherfoord Agency. The insurance broker in Alexandria, Va., brings together contractors and insurers.
Hundreds of Iraqis and Americans — or their survivors — are collecting insurance benefits for work-related injuries or deaths. The extension of benefits to worldwide employees of U.S. contractors is not new, but officials working with the program say there's never been a situation comparable to Iraq — where more than 40,000 locals are employed in the middle of an insurgency.
The majority of claims so far have been for traditional on-the-job accidents rather than violence, according to insurance executives and contractors.
Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the Labor Department says more than 2,500 claims have been filed. The total includes at least 277 claims for death benefits.
Halliburton, Vice President Dick Cheney's former company that provides much of the logistics for the U.S. military in Iraq, said it has handled more than 1,900 claims for its Iraq operations — 6 percent of them from hostile incidents.
While Halliburton had the most overall claims, the largest number of death claims, 122, was submitted for employees of Titan Corp., which provides translators.
For American employees in Iraq, workers' compensation insurance works more smoothly than it does for Iraqis.
Truck driver Tommy Zimmerman, of Little Rock, Ark., was shot in the leg April 9, 2004, while driving a fuel truck to Baghdad airport for Halliburton's KBR subsidiary. Eleven company workers were injured in the convoy attack, six were killed and one is still missing.
After treatment in Iraq and Germany, Zimmerman was flown to the company's home city of Houston, where he received medical care covered by the insurance.
"I was receiving checks before my body got to Arkansas" in mid-May, said Zimmerman. "Workmen's comp is taking care of everything, including medical coverage and paying for time missed at work."
Halliburton says employees on hazardous assignments in Iraq earn between $80,000 and $100,000 annually, a reflection of the dangerous work and 80-hour work weeks.
Iraqis are more challenging when it comes to processing claims. Most were not accustomed to filing claims under Saddam Hussein. Those working for subcontractors don't always give their real names. Others move or lose their homes in a war zone. They might not have the proper birth and marriage documents, doctor reports or documentation of job-related injuries.
Keith Flicker, a New York attorney, worked on a death benefit claim after insurgents killed four Iraqis working for American and English firms. The attackers "sent letters to the families saying, 'We're watching you. If anybody else in the family is working for Westerners, we will kill them too,'" Flicker said.
The contractors filed claims on behalf of the widows, but couldn't find them after the threats.
"They all disappeared," Flicker said.
Compensation for total disability is two-thirds of an employee's average weekly earnings up to a maximum of $1,047 a week. There are lesser benefits for partial loss of earnings.
Death benefits are one-half of the employee's average weekly earnings to a surviving spouse or one child — up to the $1,047 limit.
For two or more survivors, the benefit equals two-thirds of the average weekly earnings up to the same limit.
A soldier killed in Iraq is eligible for a death benefit of $12,420, although a proposal before Congress would raise it to $100,000. Military personnel can choose to pay for group life insurance with a death benefit ceiling of $250,000; the proposal would have the government pay for an additional $150,000.
There also is a separate disability program for military personnel who are injured, with compensation depending on injuries.
The worker's compensation insurance is a hidden cost of the Iraq war for U.S. taxpayers. The government reimburses contractors for the insurance premiums, but nobody breaks out this cost from other expenses submitted to the government for payment.
In addition to contractor reimbursements, the government will pay back insurers the cost of claims resulting from war or terrorism.
Andrew MacKinnon and William House, executives at insurer ACE USA-US International, said benefit decisions in Iraq are difficult.
An American worker is always considered in a danger zone and is insured all the time in virtually all locations. That's because American employees cannot return to their normal home surroundings after work.
An Iraqi injured in an attack on his way home or in his neighborhood would probably not be covered.
"He lives there. It's part of his everyday life. It's not job-related," House said. Yet, if an Iraqi is injured while being driven home in a company van, or is targeted by insurgents because of his job, he may be covered.
"The sad reality is, there's a lot of decisions that never had to be made before," MacKinnon said. "We've been writing the insurance for 25 years. It's the first time we've gone into a region in such turmoil while civilian works are going on."
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