Union versus Injury Expert

By DANNY HAKIM
Published: March 10, 2008

Unions vs. Injury Expert

Labor leaders are up in arms over a new employee of Mr. Spitzer’s workers’ compensation task force, which in the coming weeks will release the details of his overhaul of the system that provides benefits for employees who are injured on the job or have work-related illnesses.

Last fall, the task force’s staff hired a well-known consultant and physician named Christopher R. Brigham to help formulate the new rules. That was a problem for the state’s powerful labor unions, because Dr. Brigham, who has offices in Maine, California and Hawaii, is also one of the country’s leading advisers to companies locked in legal disputes with workers over disability payments.

Union officials argued that Dr. Brigham’s system for evaluating workers’ injuries tended to favor lower payments than the system commonly accepted under New York labor law. They also fault the task force’s executive director, Bruce Topman, for hiring Dr. Brigham without first consulting members of the task force’s advisory committee.

“There’s been no detailed discussion on what he’s going to do, why he’s been hired, or anything else,” said Art Wilcox, an official with the state A.F.L.-C.I.O., who is on the advisory committee.

Dr. Brigham’s contract, for which his firm, Brigham Associates, will be paid $162,500, was finalized in early December.

“We didn’t know they were going to hire one of the world’s most famous defense witnesses, from Hawaii, and pay him $162,000 to push for a system that he makes money off of,” Mr. Wilcox complained.

Through a spokeswoman, Dr. Brigham declined to comment. Andrew Mais, a spokesman for the task force, said that Dr. Brigham’s hiring was appropriate and that he had disclosed to state officials any potential conflicts of interest.

“The Task Force sought to contract with an individual highly qualified for this important and specialized task,” Mr. Mais said.

The advisory committee, which includes representatives from business and labor, meets behind closed doors, which has rankled some outside groups.