BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Senator Carol Liu, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AB 915
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|Author: |Holden |
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|Version: |March 19, 2015 Hearing |
| |Date: June 17, 2015 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |No |
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|Consultant:|Lenin Del Castillo |
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Subject: Public education employees: industrial accident or
illness leaves of absence: travel
restriction??????????????????????.
SUMMARY
This bill repeals the prohibition on out-of-state travel for
school and community college employees who are receiving
industrial injury leave benefits.
BACKGROUND
Existing law:
1)Provides 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 a temporary disability benefit of 2/3 of the
employee's average weekly pay, subject to a current maximum
weekly benefit of $1066.
3)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.
AB 915 (Holden) Page 2
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4)Provides that school employees receiving industrial leave
benefits cannot leave the state without the authorization of
the employing school district governing board or governing
board of the community college district, as applicable.
ANALYSIS
This bill:
1)Repeals the provisions in current law that prohibit classified
and certificated K-12 school employees, absent authorization
from the school district governing board , from traveling
out-of-state during any period when the employee is receiving
industrial injury leave benefits.
2)Repeals the provisions in current law that prohibit academic
and non-academic community college employees, absent
authorization from the governing board of the community
college district, from traveling out-of-state during any
period when the employee is receiving industrial injury leave
benefits.
STAFF COMMENTS
1)Need for the bill. According to the author's office, existing
law prohibits classified and certificated employees, who are
on industrial accident or illness leave and receiving workers'
compensation, from traveling outside the state unless the
governing board approves the travel. The Education Code and
the Labor Code each 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. This bill is intended
to align the rules governing industrial accident or illness
leaves of absence for employees between the Education Code and
the Labor Code and ensure that classified and certificated
employees are able to travel outside of the state without
having to seek the governing board's approval. The author's
office further argues that artificial limitations on travel
for injured employees who may need to travel out of state for
AB 915 (Holden) Page 3
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any number of valid reasons makes little sense.
2)Travel restrictions. According to the Assembly Committee on
Insurance, the precursor Code section to the Election Code
Sections that contain the travel limitations date back 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
traveled far away, it would be difficult to recall that
employee to determine whether the disabling condition might
have resolved.
3)Arguments in opposition. While the Association of California
School Administrators (ACSA) acknowledges there have been
cases where an employee on disability leave has missed an
out-of-state funeral due to the lack of authorization from a
school board that did not meet in time, it argues that the
travel restriction in existing law ensures that an employee on
leave will be available to attend critical medical care
evaluations or rehabilitation appointments. ACSA has
indicated its goal is to support the employee so he or she can
return to work as soon as he or she is able to. Accordingly,
ACSA has suggested amendments authorizing the school
district's Superintendent, or designee who is always
available, to act on out-of-state travel requests. By
requiring district sign-off for out of state travel, both the
district and employee are continuing to work together to
secure rehabilitation of the employee and an expectation of
when the employee will physically be able to return to their
job.
To the extent that eliminating the travel restrictions
altogether could hinder an employee's ability to recover from
injury and delay his or her return to work, the Committee may
wish to consider either ACSA's suggested alternative of
providing the school district's Superintendent or designee as
the authorizing entity rather than the school board, or
providing the authority for the school board to assign a
designee in its absence.
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SUPPORT
California Federation of Teachers
California Labor Federation
California School Employees Association
California Teachers Association
OPPOSITION
Association of California School Administrators
Orange County Department of Education
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