Companies under criticism for response to tragedy

Associated Press

NEW YORK – The check covered Leora Sells’ pay for the 10 days that followed April 19, 1995 – the time it took workers picking through the rubble of the Murrah Federal Building to recover and identify her body.

That check was one of the few extraordinary benefits Sells’ employer, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, paid her family after the Oklahoma City bombing.

Sells’ husband, Roy, says he never expected more.

“I don’t hold the federal government responsible for my wife’s death because terrorists bombed the building,” he said. “I don’t see how any family can hold an employer responsible.”

The families of some people killed in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center would disagree vehemently. Since Sept. 11, families have criticized at least two firms – Cantor Fitzgerald and Marsh &McLennan Cos. – for shirking a moral responsibility to take care of the families of workers killed on the job.

“I understand the mindset, that they must go on, they must make money, and my husband would appreciate that,” said Barbara Minervino, whose husband, a Marsh finance executive for 21 years, was killed in the attack. “But he gave his life to the company. Now what are they giving to his family?”

The answer is that Marsh and other World Trade Center companies are providing more to families than many employers have done in past tragedies, at least in terms of payments that did not directly result from lawsuits.

The scope and horrific nature of the New York attack, which killed nearly 3,000 people, makes comparisons difficult. The Oklahoma City bombing, at the time the worst ever terrorist incident on U.S. soil, killed 168.

But a look at other tragedies where people died violently at work shows employers’ efforts to assist surviving families vary considerably. It also shows that while companies have a limited legal responsibility to aid families, they risk public criticism when they give the appearance of not doing enough.

Many World Trade Center companies paid salaries for weeks after the attacks to the families of workers killed, in some cases through year’s end. Others paid annual bonuses. Several firms have set up charities to aid families.

Some firms have been reluctant to provide details, with some saying privately they worried they, too, could draw criticism.

But of those that have, Sandler O’Neill &Partners said it will pay for family health insurance for five years. Cantor, after withering criticism, has pledged to pay each family at least $100,000 and provide health insurance for 10 years.

Aon Corp. says it will for pay for health insurance for widowed spouses until they die or remarry, and for children up to age 26, if they remain full-time students.

Marsh has donated $10 million to a relief fund and paid salaries through year’s end. It originally pledged health insurance for one year, later extended that to three years of coverage, and now says it will pay for the insurance by making additional corporate contributions to the relief fund.

That is well beyond what is required by law of companies whose workers are killed on the job. In most cases, the primary benefits paid to survivors are settlements on life insurance offered through an employer and state-mandated worker’s compensation, backed by premiums paid by employers.

Roy Sells, for example, says he received a $25,000 life insurance settlement following Leora’s death and still gets about $1,000 a month in worker’s compensation. In addition to those benefits, HUD paid each family $9,000, using money specially appropriated by Congress.

In the glare of attention that often follows workplace disasters, some employers do more. But, in many other instances, surviving families of people killed on the job have not often been so content with employers’ offers of assistance.

After copier repairman Byran Uyesugi shot and killed seven co-workers in their Hawaii office in 1999, employer Xerox Corp. paid for the funerals, contributed $400,000 toward the college education of the victims’ children and donated $50,000 to a charity assisting victims of violence in Hawaii.

The company says it also made lump sum payments to the families of each of the workers who were killed, with the amounts varying depending on the type of assistance each required.

“This was an extraordinary situation and the fact that it happened to Xerox people in a Xerox workplace clearly touched the soul of the entire Xerox community, so our No. 1 priority was reaching out to the families and ensuring they had the help that they needed,” said Christa Carone, a spokeswoman for Stamford, Conn.-based company.

In addition to the one-time benefits, Xerox’s standard benefits plan in cases of employee death includes making health insurance available to families for three years, with the company picking up two years of expenses.

That assistance was not enough to dissuade the families from suing Xerox. They alleged that Xerox was at fault, and had an obligation to do more, since executives knew Uyesugi had the potential for violence.

“Maybe what they (Xerox) did was to placate the families,” said Michael Green, a Honolulu attorney who represents Merry Lynn Balatico, whose husband was among those killed. “Maybe they just did this hoping people would go away. They did something for families and their kids. … But it was too late and clearly it was a minimal gesture.”

Families of some World Trade Center victims say they’ve spoken out about their personal financial needs because companies must do more in a situation so tragic it defies comparison.

Minervino, who said her yearly bill for medicine would be $6,500 without insurance and that she has been turned down for outside coverage in the past, said her husband’s employer and others have an obligation to provide for kin as if those workers were still alive.

“My husband supported me, my husband held me when I was in pain, he took care of me, and I believe he thought I would be taken care of if anything like this ever happened,” she said. “Is this the thanks he gets?”

Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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