Labor groups question actions of workers’ comp head
Union officials are raising new concern over a revelation that the head of the Maine Workers Compensation Board had removed a hearing officer from cases involving the NewPage paper mill in Rumford in response to complaints from the mill’s manager.
The Portland Press Herald reported unions are connecting the case to a controversy last year over Gov. Paul LePage’s intervention in the work of unemployment claims hearing officers.
Paul Sighinolfi, the workers’ compensation board’s director, said during a March 11 board meeting that he made a “unilateral” decision to establish a rotation of hearings officers for cases involving the mill in 2011, a response to complaints from NewPage that hearing officer Glenn Goodnough was biased against the company.
After establishing a rotation of cases involving the mill, the newspaper reported Goodnough did not adjudicate any of the approximately 40 hearings involving NewPage employees.
Sighinolfi denied that the governor’s office had any influence over the decision. Following sharp criticism from union representatives at the March board meeting, the newspaper reported Goodnough was put back into the rotation for NewPage cases.
The newspaper reported that data is not available to determine whether Sighinolfi’s decision had an impact on the outcome of cases involving NewPage.
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