Apparently, executives at companies such as Halliburton are not satisfied with lining their pockets with the lucrative profits from their no-bid contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan. They also want to stick it to many of their employees who have been injured or traumatized on the job, as reported in the Boston Globe:

For war zone workers, a new fight

US companies employing civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan have refused to settle workers’ compensation and medical benefit claims for hundreds of war-zone injuries that range from back pain to post-traumatic stress.

A Globe review of rulings by administrative judges that resolve disputed claims found that Halliburton Co., DynCorp International, and other US contractors have been ordered to pay millions of dollars in compensation to workers whose claims they initially denied. In some cases, the companies had fought the claims for years even though their own doctors agreed that a worker had been injured.

Judges ruled in favor of the employee three times as often as they ruled for the companies, according to the review.

The cases offer a rare glimpse into the trauma endured by civilian contractor workers in combat and the often difficult struggle for benefits that they face when they return home.

One truck driver who earned $87,000 a year in Iraq was forced to live on food stamps after he hurt his back in an accident in his truck and Halliburton cut off his workers’ compensation payments.

A construction foreman in Iraq who earned $2,583 a week was forced to live in his car as he fought for medical care and workers’ compensation. Halliburton had sent him home to receive medical treatment after a mortar attack, but then cut off his pay and failed to cover doctors’ visits.

The Globe examined the records of 113 contested cases that eventually went before the Office of Administrative Law Judges in the US Department of Labor. In 37 of the cases, the workers won outright. In 65 cases, companies settled the claims, often agreeing to pay tens of thousands of dollars or more in additional benefits. Only 11 employees’ claims were turned down by judges.

These cases represent a small fraction of the more than 13,000 insurance claims that have been filed by workers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. The vast majority of cases are resolved when employees file required paperwork or during private mediation between the companies and employees overseen by the Department of Labor. But in hundreds of cases, the companies refused to settle, arguing that workers were not injured on the job or that they were asking for too much money. [full text]