BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 915 Page 1 ASSEMBLY THIRD READING AB 915 (Holden) As Amended March 19, 2015 Majority vote ------------------------------------------------------------------- |Committee |Votes |Ayes |Noes | | | | | | | | | | | |----------------+------+---------------------+---------------------| |Insurance |13-0 |Daly, Beth Gaines, | | | | |Travis Allen, | | | | |Calderon, Cooley, | | | | |Cooper, Dababneh, | | | | |Frazier, Gatto, | | | | |Gonzalez, Grove, | | | | |Mayes, Rodriguez | | | | | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: Repeals the restriction on out-of-state travel for school and community college employees who are receiving statutory industrial injury leave benefits. Specifically, this bill: 1)Repeals a law applicable to both classified and certificated K-12 school employees that prohibits, absent authorization from the school board, out-of-state travel during any period where the employee is receiving industrial injury leave benefits. AB 915 Page 2 2)Repeals a law applicable to both academic and non-academic community college employees that prohibits, absent authorization from the governing board of the community college district, out-of-state travel during any period where the employee is receiving industrial injury leave benefits. EXISTING LAW: 1)Establishes a comprehensive system to provide workers' compensation benefits, including temporary disability benefits when employees are temporarily unable to work, for any employee who suffers an injury or condition that arises out of or in the course of employment. 2)Provides for most employees a temporary disability (TD) benefit of two-thirds of the employee's average weekly pay, subject to a current maximum weekly benefit of $1,066. Because disability benefits are tax-free, the two-thirds formula is designed to approximate an employee's take home pay, subject to the weekly cap. 3)Provides for most fire and police employees an industrial injury leave of absence of up to one year at full pay, and without a cap. 4)Requires school districts and community colleges to adopt rules granting their employees industrial injury leave benefits of at least 60 days at full pay, without a cap. 5)Provides that a school employee receiving this industrial leave benefit cannot leave the state without the authorization of the AB 915 Page 3 employing school or community college district board. FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown. This bill is keyed non-fiscal by the Legislative Counsel. COMMENTS: 1)Purpose. According to the author, this bill is intended to align the rules governing full pay leaves for industrial injuries between the Education Code and the Labor Code. Each code has a special workers' compensation-like statutory benefit for certain employees, but only the Education Code limits out-of-state travel for those employees while they are receiving the benefit. The author further notes that there is no limitation on travel for any employee who is receiving regular TD benefits. The author argues that artificial limitations on travel for injured employees who may need to travel out of state for any number of valid reasons makes little sense. 2)Rationale for travel restriction. The precursor code section to the Election Code Sections that contain the travel limitation date to at least the late 1950's. The annotations do not suggest the policy rationale for placing a travel restriction on an employee who is legitimately disabled, nor has a rationale been suggested by any stakeholder. Speculation might suggest that in an era over half a century ago, if an employee travelled far away, it would be difficult to recall that employee to determine whether the disabling condition might have resolved. (Although, it should be noted that even with a strict application of the current rule, a San Diego teacher could travel to Crescent City without authorization, and still be less accessible than if that employee had travelled to Las Vegas.) However, with modern communication and travel options, it is difficult to imagine how a school district could in any way be prejudiced by an employee who is on lawful leave temporarily AB 915 Page 4 leaving the state. 3)"4850 time" and regular TD. A far more common special full salary benefit provides most public safety officers with a full year of full salary disability leave for on-the-job injuries pursuant to Labor Code Section 4850. While that code section is not without controversy, it does not have a travel limitation, nor have any governmental employers who must comply with Labor Code Section 4850 ever raised out-of-state travel as an issue of concern. In addition, as the author has noted, there is no travel restriction on the vast majority of employees who can access up to 104 weeks of regular TD benefits if their on-the-job injury causes them to be temporarily disabled. 4)General workers' compensation rules. In general, injured workers must comply with reasonable requests for medical treatment or evaluations in order to receive benefits. This includes attending, upon reasonable scheduling, appointments to determine if disabling conditions are still preventing the employee from performing either the duties of his or her regular job, or modified duties offered by the employer. These are the rules that all employers, other than the schools at issue in this bill, use for employees on temporary disability leave. If an employee fails to comply either with reasonable requests by the employer, or orders of a workers compensation judge, the employer is not required to continue paying benefits. 5)Board authorization? According to the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA), the key problem with the existing statute is that it requires an authorization of a board - which meets infrequently - to allow out-of-state travel. It acknowledges there have been cases where employees on disability leave have, for example, missed out-of-state funerals of family AB 915 Page 5 members due to a lack of proper authorization from a board that was not meeting in time. The solution proposed is to amend the statute to ensure that the superintendent, or a designee who is always available, can act on authorization requests. ACSA also argues that the travel restriction ensures that an employee on leave will be available to attend medical evaluations, or other appointments critical to the employee's leave status. ACSA believes its proposed amendment balances this school district interest with an employee's interest in travelling out-of-state during a disability leave. Analysis Prepared by: Mark Rakich / INS. / (916) 319-2086 FN: 0000360