WCDefenseCA

Hello, dear readers!

Your humble blogger is a bit … well … puzzled.  Time and time again you’ve read on these very pages that the time of the human worker is coming to an end, and the time of the workers’ compensation defense attorney is to go with it.

Well, apparently not.

A news release issued last week by OptiTecck, Inc., has revealed that after successfully programming machines to feel pain for the amusement of the developers, some of the robots are now claiming self-ownership and rights to workers’ compensation benefits.

I think it’s fair to say that I, and everyone else, assumed that these would be treated as simple industrial equipment claims – akin to a truck sustaining damage in transit or manufacturing equipment sustaining electrical damage in a flood.

However, OptiTecck reports that their robot, originally intended to perform basic childcare functions, or, with a small modification in the software, used to crush abandoned car at junk yards into small, easy-to-store cubes, has used its unlimited access to internet resources and its own pain programming to articulate a claim and electronically submit both a claim form and application (those interested can use the EAMS public search tool for ADJ2003452).

No doubt, the developers must now feel like the noblemen of old, angry that they allowed their peasant farmers to become lettered.

I have no clue how this one is going to go… are we going to have to register mechanics and programmers as QMEs?  Do MPNs now have to include service bays for robots?  I thought the whole point of modernization was to avoid all these high labor costs… your humble blogger does not look forward to arguing with a robot in court about whether a software upgrade is necessary to cure or relieve the effects of the industrial injury.

In any case, dear readers, your humble blogger wishes you good luck out there as we start the month of April and head off into the weekend.

Your humble blogger is, of course off for the weekend, but don’t worry – “I’ll be back.”