Photo / William Hall
MEMIC Group Board of Directors has authorized distribution of a $17 million dividend to more than 14,000 eligible employers.
Updated: January 26, 2021
MEMIC helps its employees find their footing in hazardous Maine winter
Courtesy / Mayo Clinic
Wintertime falls are a leading cause of workplace injury, especially in Maine.
By William Hall
Fancy footwear is the latest employee perk at MEMIC Group, and Maine is a place where the kicks may be fashion-forward.
MEMIC, a Portland-based workers’ compensation insurer, is offering each of its nearly 500 employees free ice cleats to help prevent wintertime spills, according to a news release.
“We recommend this cleat to our policyholders as the easiest and most effective tool to prevent slips, trips and falls during the winter months. We decided we ought to be safely ‘walking the walk’ ourselves,” said Karl Siegfried, MEMIC senior vice president of loss control. “We want to protect our team members from injuries just as much as the employees of our policyholders.”
Spokesman Tony Payne on Monday told Mainebiz about half of MEMIC's workforce, mostly in the Northeast, have requested a pair of cleats so far. The company is budgeting $12,000 on them.
The investment is one with a high potential return. Slips and falls result in an estimated 100 million lost workdays a year across North America, at an annual cost of $36 billion. In Maine, slips and falls related to winter conditions lead to more than 25,000 days of lost time each year and cost workers, employers and insurers more than $2.3 million annually, the state Department of Labor reported in 2013.
Data shows these dangers are especially serious in comparison to other states. Maine has the country’s fourth-highest rate of work-related injury and illness related to ice, sleet and snow, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2017, there were 8.2 incidents per 10,000 workers in Maine, more than four times the national average. Only Alaska, Wyoming and Montana experienced higher rates.
It's not clear how the pandemic may be affecting the risks. Because of COVID-19 concerns, many Mainers continue to work from home, an environment that might seem relatively safe from outdoor slips and falls. But while an office parking lot is shoveled free of snow, a driveway at home could be more treacherous.
The work-from-home trend is already a concern among some in the workers' comp field.
For example, the Journal of the New York State Bar Association in July wrote: “With the workplace now encompassing the home offices and dining rooms of millions of Americans, the potential for accidents and illnesses in workers’ homes must be considered on a scale that previously did not exist … The compensability of injuries that occur at an employee’s home promises to occupy the attention of legal representatives of both injured workers and their employers.”
At MEMIC, Payne said the company's precautionary step "isn't necessarily about working-from-home, it's about plain old safety for our folks."
"If you think about the cost of an injury and an emergency room visit, even one set of cleats is going to make a difference."
While ice cleats have long been available through Maine companies such as L.L.Bean Inc., MEMIC chose the K1 Series cleats from a Canadian manufacturer, Geroline Inc., because they're designed to accommodate workers who spend time both indoors and outdoors, according to Payne. The cleats allow wearers to rotate the metal studs out of the way when not needed.
“What we like about the K1 Ice Cleat is that it easily flips over to the top of the shoe or boot without having to remove the cleat. In a work environment, that ease-of-use removes objections to wearing them,” Siegfried said in the release.
“We believe nearly all workforce injuries are preventable with planning and training. This solution, though, is a no-brainer.”
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