JwJ, EJC Urge Action for Injured Government Workers

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)Demanding that the government recognize the needs of injured DC government workers, a coalition of community groups testified March 1 at the Council's Committee on Government Operations Oversight Hearing on the Office of Risk Management. “When we came on the job [in DC government] we were guaranteed we would not fall into poverty” Gaynell Nixon told Union City. Nixon, an injured DC government employee and Injured Worker Advocate at the Employment Justice Center (EJC), also attended the hearing. Nixon says the 2011 DC budget “got rid of the safety net” for injured government employees. The disability benefits are there to help injured government employees “pay their medical care, rent and other basic fundamental human necessities” said DC Jobs with Justice (DC JwJ) Executive Director Nikki Daruwala at the hearing. DC JwJ and the EJC, along with other community coalition partners urged the Council to pass legislation that would reform flaws in the Disability Compensation Program.