Michigan comp bills would codify contractor/employer test, increase benefits

A bill in Michigan would codify the so-called “ABC test” for distinguishing between employees and contractors, a test already used by the U.S. Labor Department and neighboring states, including Ohio and Indiana.

H.B. 5177, introduced Thursday, would declare that a worker is an independent contractor and not an employee if the hiring entity establishes that the person is free from control and direction in connection with the performance of work; the person performs work outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business; and the person is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation or business.

Bill sponsor Joey Andrews (D) said during a press conference Thursday that the goal of the proposal is to make it harder for employers to misclassify workers as contractors to avoid providing benefits that are available to employees.

Another bill introduced Thursday would increase benefits owed to injured workers to 90% of their average weekly wage, up from 80%. Under H.B. 5186, those receiving benefits for more than a year would be entitled to annual adjustments equal to the percentage increase in the state’s average weekly wage.

The bill would eliminate a statute requiring that workers comp benefit payments start on the eighth day after an injury. Instead, it mandates that compensation “must be paid under this act for any period of time in which a work injury or occupational disease results in disability connected to wage loss.”

The measure also would clarify that the definition of a work injury includes the acceleration or worsening of a symptom or pathology related to a physical or mental condition, regardless of any preexisting or coexisting condition.

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