They say they got sick from doing their job, and now they’re being denied worker’s comp benefits Or, it turns out, they’re employers may not even have proper coverage.
The NBC4 I-Team and Telemundo 52 Investiga have been looking into the increasing number of silicosis cases in California. Silicosis is a lung disease affecting stone-cutting workers working with engineered or artificial stone.
Cesar Gonzalez says he felt like the floor was being pulled from under him last December when he was diagnosed with silicosis.
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"To be honest, I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry,” he said.
According to doctors, silicosis is caused by inhaling silica dust from working with artificial stone used in kitchen and bathroom countertops.
"You feel like you're trapped in your own body,” Gonzalez said of his condition.
Cesar says he started working at a shop cutting engineered stone when he was 18. At 36, he is now connected to an oxygen tank and waiting for a lung transplant, while also trying to get worker’s compensation from his employer.
But when he tried to contact his employer, he said neither he nor his attorney could get an answer about coverage.
“We believe that there is no worker's compensation insurance coverage, and as such, we will probably have to join a state agency to cover worker's compensation benefits,” Gary Rodich, of Rodich Law, said.
Worker's compensation insurance covers employee expenses resulting from accidents and illnesses caused in their places of employment. But Rodich has discovered some employers in the stone-cutting industry aren’t keeping up with their coverage, which he says is illegal. And, in other cases, the silicosis diagnosis is denied from coverage.
"We've got several of these cases, almost all of them have been denied by the worker's compensation insurance carrier,” Rodich added.
These types of cases have now gotten the attention of California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara.
“So we first noticed that there was some delays in granting worker's comp rights to some of the silicosis patients through your reporting, actually,” Lara said.
Lara tells us our reporting prompted him to write a letter to the Worker’s Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau requesting a detailed study on silicosis claims across the state.
He wants answers to questions like the number of silicosis cases filed in the past 10 years and the average medical costs related to these claims. He says all employers in the state must offer some form of worker's compensation coverage.
"Worker's comp in California is critical to protect our workers. Everybody can access worker's comp. Even our undocumented community is something we're very proud of because we know that we keep all our workers healthy, it contributes to their own economic wellbeing, but it contributes to the overall wellbeing of our economy here in California,” Lara said.
The NBC4 I-Team reached out to Cesar's most recent employer in North Hollywood, listed on a legal claim provided to us by his attorney, requesting information about worker's compensation coverage. Despite several attempts, neither our partners at Telemundo 52 Investiga or the I-Team received a response.
We also searched on the state’s workers compensation insurance rating bureau webpage, where anyone can see if an employer has workers comp insurance. No information about the business came up.
Rodich says he wants more to be done on the state level – beyond the proposed study.
We have been tracking cases of silicosis related to engineered stone in California and more continue to be identified. As of Aug. 15, the state’s department of public health tells the I-Team there are 176 of these types of cases in the state. Sixty percent are Los Angeles County residents, according to our analysis of the data.
