Members of a key legislative committee remained uncommitted to a comprehensive study of the Wyoming workers' compensation program amid intense lobbying by worker advocates.

The Wyoming Trial Lawyers Association, Wyoming AFL-CIO and the Equality State Policy Center are pushing for several reforms to increase death and disability benefits. AFL-CIO executive director Kim Floyd said years of industrial lobbying have tilted workers' compensation into an "employer protection" program that systematically discourages workers with long-term injuries from seeking claims at all.

"The division is frivolously contesting cases and just harassing people until they settle," Floyd said.

Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper, is co-chairman of the Joint Labor, Health and Social Services Committee. He said he believes the death benefit is probably too low, and it might be worthwhile to look into disability and impairment benefits.

However, Scott doubts there's a need for major reform. He said the workers' compensation program carefully scrutinizes every claim in order to efficiently convert employers' premiums into benefits for those who get injured or killed on the job.

"The attorneys don't like the workers' compensation program. It works so well because we cut the attorneys out," Scott said.

The Legislature's Management Council must approve interim studies for the 10 interim committees before lawmakers adjourn for the year. Both House Speaker Roy Cohee, R-Casper, and Senate President John Schiffer, R-Kaycee, said recently that workers' compensation wasn't on their radar.

"The Management Council stays thoroughly objective with regards to the subjects they want in the interim," Cohee said.

Typically, interim committees are assigned three or four main issues to study. Cohee said something as complex as workers' compensation could be something that is studied for two years, "rather than just discussing it in just two or three meetings."

Workers' compensation is "one of the more important issues" that the joint labor committee will consider for interim study this year, said Jack Landon Jr., R-Sheridan, co-chairman of the committee. But it will compete with several other pressing issues.

Landon said general health care, health care access for lower-income residents, disability and mental services around the state are also high-priority issues.

"We have to decide which one is causing the most problems for people in Wyoming, and which has potential for improving people's lives and the welfare of the state the most. And that's where we need to focus our attention," Landon said.

Energy reporter Dustin Bleizeffer can be reached at (307) 577-6069 or dustin.bleizeffer@trib.com.