While there are several new laws every year, Tennessee lawmakers hadn’t touched workers’ comp since an overhaul a decade ago that heavily benefited businesses. But a new law is significant because it’s to the benefit of employees.
Two McNairy County women led the charge.
In 2014, Candy Garrison got a devastating call.
“I was in the kitchen canning and had got a phone call that something had happened to Charlie,” said Garrison.
Startled, she rushed to the Madison County General Hospital, where her husband was being taken. When she arrived, Garrison found out what had happened.
“They thought that Charlie might have had a heart attack,” Garrison recalled. “But he didn’t. He was just hit by a forklift.”
The Garrison Family. Chaz, Maegan, Chase, Candy, Charlie Garrison.
Charlie Garrison, her husband of 31 years and father of their two children, died from the injuries he obtained while working in the shipping department at Packaging Corporation of America in Counce, a town along the Tennessee River near the Mississippi border.
After working with the company to get her workers’ compensation benefits, Garrison received checks from the company for eight and a half years. While the money did help, there were strings attached.
“To receive those benefits, I had to be alive and I could not remarry. And those benefits — because our sons were over 18 — in no way would have transferred to them,” said Garrison.
Then, seven years later, at the same factory, another employee died — Kara Jordan’s husband, Jesse.
“I was 29 years old, yes,” said Jordon. “He was my high school sweetheart.”
Kara Jordan with husband Jesse Jordan and daughter Averi.
Jordan was married to the man she’d been dating since 16 and raising their 9-year-old daughter.
By this time the laws had changed a bit, so Kara could’ve received the money over the span of 11 years and 7 months, but with the same stipulation that she couldn’t remarry. And on top of that, her daughter, who would’ve been 20 by the time the last check came in, would’ve stopped receiving benefits at 18 if she hadn’t gone to college.
So, Jordan decided to take a lump sum payment.
“I think we lost a little over 30-something thousand dollars doing it that way,” said Jordan. “I ended up just doing it that way for myself and my family. I have actually met someone since, and my daughter loves him and that’s all that matters.”
These tragic life events led both Candy Garrison and Kara Jordan to want to change the workers’ compensation laws. So, they went to their local legislators, and worked with DJ Norton, an attorney who focuses on workers’ compensation.
“When Kara approached me about the law and I explained the law to her, I really didn’t think that she would get anywhere or get any change passed through the legislature,” said Norton
But to Norton’s surprise, lawmakers listened and filed legislation to get the law changed.
Currently, surviving spouses receive a little over five and a half years of pay. Beginning July 1, when the law goes into effect, they’ll be eligible to receive nearly six and a half years of pay.
Norton says while the changes were subtle, he believes the outcome is a big win.
“I think if more people in our state knew what the worker’s compensation laws were, then they would demand more action of our legislature to, you know, make laws that benefit workers and not always corporations,” said Norton.
Norton says the next change he’d like to see is the reversal of a provision in the Workers’ Compensation Reform Act. It placed appointed, instead of elected, judges in charge of hearing workers’ compensation cases.
“A chancellor that’s elected by the people there, you know, if you come before their court they may know you, they may know your family, they may be more sympathetic to your cause. And more accountable too,” said Norton.
If or when that change will come is unknown. But Jordan says she is going to continue fighting to try and get more favorable workers’ compensation laws in the state.
“I definitely would like to see more change be made to protect the worker over money,” said Jordan. “You know, people are more important than money, that’s my feeling.”
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