Injured workers beware: Industrial Commission getting an ideological makeover

And the wrong target will be in their crosshairs:

The shift at the Industrial Commission means more than just new appointments for Republicans. It will likely bring a mind-shift in workers’ compensation cases. Conservatives have long complained that commissioners coddle injured workers, liberally awarding compensation at the expense of businesses and their insurers.

Once again, GOP lawmakers ignore the realities staring them in the face, and clutch their ideological memes instead. It's not the workers who get injured on their jobs trying to "game the system", it's the businesses themselves:

The News & Observer reported last April that 30,000 or more businesses in this state are breaking the law by not carrying insurance to protect injured workers. The news brought unprecedented pressure on the Commission. Former Gov. Perdue demanded the problem be fixed; legislators convened a committee to examine the problem.

While the commission had the authority - and some say responsibility - to find these uninsured businesses and bring them into compliance, it hasn’t. And, though commissioners have the power to fine or urge prosecution of businesses without insurance, they rarely have.

Anybody with half a brain would know the first thing that needs to be done is to figure out how to bring these companies into compliance before this illegal activity becomes standard procedure. But apparently it doesn't even require half a brain to warm one of those chairs in the General Assembly:

“As a business owner, I feel the commission is a little tough on businesses,” said Sen. Harry Brown (R-Jacksonville), a car dealership owner and one of the bill’s sponsors. “We need to swing them back to the middle.”

Dude. Seriously. If the Commission not prosecuting lawbreakers is considered "tough", I'd hate to see what will happen if they decide to "coddle" these businesses.