Employees at North Dakota's workers compensation agency weren't eager to speak up at a legislative hearing on the agency's problems, despite pleas for comment from the state House's majority leader.

Rep. Rick Berg, R-Fargo, who also serves as chairman of the Legislature's interim Industry, Business and Labor Committee, set aside time Wednesday for comments from Workforce Safety and Insurance workers about the agency's workings, and how they could be improved.

The hearing was held in the agency's north Bismarck headquarters, and more than two dozen employees sat in. About 10 others watched on remote video hookups. Workforce Safety has almost 240 employees statewide.

At first, no one came forward. Berg's invitation to medical providers to talk about their relationship with WSI also was ignored. The agency provides medical, rehabilitation and lost-wage benefits to employees who are injured on the job.

Later, two employees - Sandra Bilstad, a nurse and medical case manager in the agency's Fargo office, and Harvey Hanel, WSI's pharmacy director - spoke up, referring to unflattering attention Workforce Safety recently has received.

Hanel said he had never feared voicing his opinion, but he believes employees are reluctant to jump into what has often been a vitriolic public debate about WSI.

"There's been a general impression here that we've already been tried and convicted by the media," Hanel said. "We've been tried and convicted by a number of legislators, to be perfectly honest … When you hear that venom that's expressed over and over and over again, you don't want to see your name appear in the paper. You don't want to be on the news."

James Long, Workforce Safety's chief of support services, said he believed workers were keeping quiet because they fear retaliation from upper management. The agency's employees do not have civil service job protection and can be dismissed for almost any reason.

Long himself has been suspended from his job with pay since last November. He has requested legal protection against on-the-job retaliation and has given information to prosecutors about what he believes is wrongdoing at the agency.

"They're absolutely scared, and I don't think that that surprises anyone," Long said of employees' reluctance to speak publicly. "They know that this is going to be recorded. They know that there's press here, and they've seen what's happened to other people who have stepped up."

Long asked Berg to devise a method for allowing employees to offer anonymous comments about their concerns and ways to improve WSI's operations. Berg said WSI employees, if they wished, should be able to speak anonymously to legislators and legislative staffers.

Long said he had phone calls from about 40 employees about the agency. On the whole, he believes WSI employees "do a great job," he said.

"I know that this situation has made them miserable, and me coming forward and doing what I did hasn't helped that," Long said. "It has made a lot of people miserable."

Bilstad and Hanel said WSI's work force is dedicated and conscientious.

"Every organization in the United States is not without problems or faults, and I think that the focus and attention needs to be put on fixing those, capturing the positives that we see from day to day, because there are many positives," Bilstad said. "It would be a great benefit if we could be less caught up in the political activity, and really focus on the business at hand."

Public criticism of Workforce Safety has intensified since the November 2006 publication of a state performance audit that questioned WSI's spending on gift certificates and trinkets for employees and meals and trips for some state lawmakers.

During the 2007 Legislature, minority Democrats unsuccessfully pushed a proposal to restore the governor's control over the agency, which had been taken away a decade ago in favor of oversight by an appointed board of directors.

Workforce Safety's chief executive, Sandy Blunt, and its investigations director, Romi Leingang, were charged with conspiring to disclose confidential state driver's license photos as part of a hunt for someone who was distributing agency salary information.

Blunt was also charged with misspending agency funds. The felony allegations have been dropped against both Blunt and Leingang, although the Burleigh County prosecutor has asked the North Dakota Supreme Court to reinstate two charges that Blunt misused WSI funds. Both are felonies.

Blunt was forced out of his position last December. Leingang resigned in January, saying she had found a better job.