U.S.DepartmentofLabor 

May 1, 1998 

Employment Standards Administration 

Office of Workers' Compensation Programs 

Division of Longshore and 

H,irbor Workers' Compensation 

Washington, D.C. 2021 O 

File Number: 

Notice No. 86 

NOTICE TO INSURANCE CARRIERS, SELF-INSURED EMPLOYERS UNDER THE 

LONGSHORE AND HARBOR WORKERS' COMPENSATION ACT, AND OTHER 

INTERESTED PERSONS 

SUBJECT: The YEAR 2000 PROBLEM 

President Clinton has told his Cabinet, in no uncertain terms, 

of the need to successfully prepare Federal departments and 

agencies for the transition to year 2000. In addition, Federal 

agencies need to reach out to domestic and international 

organizations and businesses that are part of the economic 

sectors in which we operate to increase awareness of the year 

2000 problem. 

What is the Year 2000 Problem? Many computers that use two 

digits to keep track of the date will, on January 1, 2000, 

recognize "double zero" not as 2000 but as 1900. This glitch 

could cause them to stop running or to start generating 

erroneous data. 

Will the Year 2000 Problem Affect the Average American? The 

year 2000 problem poses a serious threat to the global economy 

in which Americans live and work. Our economy is dependent 

upon the electronic processing and exchange of financial and 

other data; thus, any failure -- for example, difficulties a 

bank may have in completing transactions, slowdowns in commuter 

traffic due to malfunctioning traffic signals, power companies 

being unable to provide electricity to some of their customers 

-- may cause disruptions in the lives of the American people. 

Possible Impact on Beneficiaries Under the Longshore and Harbor 

Workers' Compensation Act. The payment of benefits under the 

Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act has become 

dependent on electronic processing and exchange of data. This 

obviously includes benefit payments made from the Special Fund 

by the Division of Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation. 

Any failure in these automated systems may cause serious 

disruptions in the delivery of benefits to injured workers or 

their survivors. We are concerned about this potential problem 

Working for Americas Workforce 
and think that self-insured elllployers and insurance carriers 

should be too. 

Is This a Problem Without a Solution? No. The technical "fix" 

is straightforward, but the complexity of many of our computer 

systems and their interactions with each other make it timeconsuming to implement. The question is: In the time 

remaining, how best to marshal the resources needed to deal 

with the problem. 

The Division of Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation has 

been working to ensure that our mission-critical systems are 

year 2000 compliant and that continuity of service to our 

customers is maintained. It is our objective to have all our 

mission-critical systems year 2000 compliant by December 1998. 

Self-insured elllployers and insurance carriers also have the 

responsibility and obligation to ensure that proper benefit 

payments continue to be made in a timely manner. 

It is important that each self-insured employer and insurance 

carrier review its own situation to determine if there is a 

problelll. If so, what is the extent of it? What is being done 

about it? Are there adequate institutional resources for 

fixing the problem? Are contingency plans being developed to 

ensure continuity of service in the event of system failure? 

If you have already started working on the problem, you should 

maintain it as your highest priority. If you haven't begun to 

work on it yet, you need to start. Maintaining the continuity 

of service to injured workers or their survivors is an absolute 

necessity. 

Helpful Information on the Year 2000 Problem. Some of the best 

information on the year 2000 problem is available on the Web. 

The year 2000 pages of the CIO Council Committee on Year 2000 

(www.itpolicy.gsa.gov/mks/yr2000/y2khome.htm) and the Small 

Business Administration (www.sba.gov/y2k) are two excellent 

sources of information about the problem. 

Director, Division 

Longshore and Harbor 

Workers' Compensation