Emily Spieler

There have been exceptions, said Emily Spieler, a professor at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston and an expert on workers’ comp. One example would be a nurse who worked in a tuberculosis ward and contracted the disease.

Emily Spieler is the Edwin W. Hadley Professor of Law at Northeastern University. 

Worker advocates say such explanations fail to acknowledge that most claims involve simple strains or stitched wounds, which aren’t controversial. The most severe — and expensive — injuries are often the ones that end up in dispute. The system “isn’t only designed for the short-term, easily diagnosed diseases and injuries; it’s supposed to be for […]

The ballot question does, however, include a provision that creates flexibility for employers: If a sick employee misses time on the job but agrees to work the same number of hours or shifts in the same or next pay period, he or she does not have to use earned sick time and the employer does […]

The U.S. Government Accountability Office in 2009 said that more than a third of health practitioners surveyed were asked by company managers to provide treatment that wouldn’t necessarily require a formal injury or illness report. The government doesn’t require that a minor injury, such as a burn treated with a bandage, be recorded but does […]