Big boxes lobby for workers’ comp limits

AUSTIN, Tex. — Walmart, Lowe’s, Nordstrom, and Safeway are among companies quietly forming a lobby to restrict access to workers’ compensation, according to a report in Mother Jones magazine. The firms are bankrolling a lobbying group called the Association for Responsible Alternatives to Workers’ Compensation, which has already succeeded in getting legislation it helped to write passed in Tennessee. The group favours laws allowing private employers to opt out of public workers’ compensation plans and effectively write their own rules governing when, why, and for how long injured employees are eligible to make claims.