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Ailing Oak Ridge workers deserve better treatment
By News Sentinel editorial staff
August 24, 2004

If the situation weren't so serious, it would be laughable.

But we doubt any of the sick Oak Ridge workers are laughing over the
Department of Energy's abysmal record in helping former employees win
workers' compensation benefits.

Of about 4,300 workers who filed disability or survivor claims based on
illnesses that employees allegedly developed from working at Tennessee
facilities, mostly in Oak Ridge, only 12 claims have been approved over the
last three years. Nationwide through July, DOE has helped only 31 of nearly
25,000 applicants complete the process of receiving workers' compensation.

"DOE has set up a bureaucracy that Jesus Christ couldn't walk through,"
said Harry Lee Williams of Knoxville, a disabled former Oak Ridge security
worker who has multiple diseases and battled DOE for years for
compensation. "Sick people can't handle that," Williams said. We can't help
but agree.

Williams finally ended up filing a lawsuit. He said he won a financial
settlement in 2002 but agreed not to disclose the amount.

We're pleased to see that both of Tennessee's senators and six of its
representatives are working to set things right.

U.S. Sens. Bill Frist and Lamar Alexander voted for a Senate-passed
amendment to move the program from DOE management to the Department of
Labor, which has a better record in awarding benefits. During the same
period DOE approved 12 claims for former Oak Ridge employees to receive
$415,000, the Department of Labor awarded $214 million in benefits to 1,936
former Tennessee workers.

In the House, U.S. Reps. Bill Jenkins, Lincoln Davis, Jim Cooper and Bart
Gordon have backed legislation or proposals to do the same thing.

U.S. Reps. Zach Wamp of Chattanooga and John J. Duncan Jr. of Knoxville are
taking another approach. They backed a successful House amendment that aims
to get more physicians interested in reviewing claims by raising the limit
on fees. They said more reviewers will speed processing.

Wamp, whose district includes Oak Ridge, said the Department of Labor does
not want the additional responsibility and that transferring the work will
delay the cases of Oak Ridge workers even longer.

A House-Senate panel will attempt to find a compromise next month as part
of the defense authorization bill.

We agree with Frist and Alexander that shifting the program to the
Department of Labor is a good idea. It is clear that DOE is not acting in a
responsible manner, despite the fact that Congress keeps appropriating more
money each year to manage the program.

The workers deserve more consideration. They worked in defense of our
nation and its people, and now many are dying from exposure to hazards that
were little understood at the time.

In their way, they are the heroes of the Cold War. America and its
government owe these workers better than this shabby treatment.

Copyright 2004, KnoxNews. All Rights Reserved.