Every month, the West Virginia Workers' Compensation Performance Council meets. Its nine members make decisions affecting every business owner and working person in the state. Business lawyers and lobbyists pack the room. A couple of union leaders usually attend.
Discussions often go on for hours.
They often get tedious, technical and statistical. The Legislature created the Performance Council in 1993 to review and to approve all new premium rates and new regulations. The chairman of the council is the Employment Programs commissioner. The council has four business and four labor representatives appointed to staggered four-year terms by the governor. Labor leaders still fume about the 1995 law that makes it harder for injured workers to get compensation benefits.