Philadelphia Parking agency spends big on workers' comp:More then Police or Fire

The Philadephia Inquirer reports:

Battling fires and fighting crime is risky work, to be sure, but those jobs have nothing on writing parking tickets.

Or so it would seem, if workers' compensation claims are any indication.

Over the last four years, employees at the Philadelphia Parking Authority have reported being hurt on the job more than twice as often as city firefighters or police officers.

As a result, the Parking Authority spends far more on settling workplace-injury claims: $1,558 per employee, compared with the firefighters' average of $1,084 and the Police Department figure of $833, according to an Inquirer analysis of city and Parking Authority workers' comp data.

In interviews, officials at the state-run Philadelphia Parking Authority acknowledged that they have a problem.

"Historically, there has been some claim propensity here," said Allan D. Dunkleberger, the authority's risk-management director.

When asked why that was the case, Dunkleberger had a simple answer: "Sometimes people don't want to work."

Government workers sure are special.