A US crane association has successfully lobbied to change the law on workers’ compensation. After more than a year of campaigning, the Florida Crane Owners Council (FCOC) saw the bill, which it expects will cut insurance premiums by 16%, signed into state law in May. The group will see it take effect in January 2004.

The issue at the heart of the new law is ‘horizontal immunity’ – whether one contractor on site is immune from suits brought by an employee of another contractor in the event of an accident. Under the new law, horizontal immunity is reinstated, provided that the contractor has workers’ compensation insurance for its own employees and that its own gross negligence is not a major contributing factor in the accident, according to attorney Gary Hellman, special counsel to the FCOC, partner of law firm Gordon & Hellman and author of the legislation.

‘The bane of crane and equipment operators in the state of Florida has been that they are continually sued by workers of other subcontractors, i.e. masons, plumbers, HVAC, etc., for injuries sustained in a construction site accident even though the accident may or may not have involved lifting operations,’ Hellman told Cranes Today.

‘Our clients have even been sued in accidents that occurred after the crane completed lifting services and was dismantled and hauled from the site.’

The FCOC, which was formed in March 2001, was supported by its parent trade organisation, Associated Builders & Contractors of Florida. It lobbied for votes for the bill in vain in 2002. But then Florida governor Jeb Bush set up a special Worker’s Compensation Reform Study Commission which eventually came out in favour of restoring horizontal immunity, according to Hellman.

Not everyone is in favour of the law. Florida attorney Phares Heindl said: ‘Why shouldn’t crane operators be forced to use the ordinary standard of care? If they are not using spotters or taking care, why should they be exonerated when someone is seriously injured, and can’t work and provide for his family? Mom and pop crane companies don’t have very many assets. This is the only means to collect. Worker’s comp [compensation] pays very little benefits. Clearly I’m not in favour of such a law.’

The November issue of Cranes Today will feature an interview with Jim Robertson, chairman of the Florida Crane Owners Council