Bob Burke has lead the constitutional challenge to a 2013 Oklahoma workers' compensation law, the Adminstrative Workers' Compensation Act (AWCA), that gave Oklahoma the lowest benefits for injured workers in the nation. More than 100 appeals were filed with the Oklahoma Supreme Court. By 2022, 68 provisions of the AWCA had been found unconstitutional or invalid. In addition, Bob has taken the fight to the Oklahoma legislature which has stricken another 10 unconstitutional provisions of the AWCA before they were tested and has granted modest increases in benefits.
Bob was a national spokesman against a new workers' compenstaion scheme called OPT OUT that would allow employers to basically decide on their own what injuries they would pay for. It was attempted in Oklahoma, but the Oklahoma Supreme Court found OPT OUT unconstitutional. That decision reverberated across the nation, effictively shutting down the plan in several Southern states. Bob traveled across the South to speak to legislators and lawyers about what he called "the worst thing for injured workers in a half century."
