BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 915| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- THIRD READING Bill No: AB 915 Author: Holden (D) Amended: 3/19/15 in Assembly Vote: 21 SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 8-0, 6/17/15 AYES: Liu, Runner, Block, Hancock, Leyva, Monning, Pan, Vidak NO VOTE RECORDED: Mendoza ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 80-0, 5/14/15 - See last page for vote SUBJECT: Public education employees: industrial accident or illness leaves of absence: travel restriction SOURCE: Author DIGEST: This bill repeals the prohibition on out-of-state travel for school and community college employees who are receiving industrial injury leave benefits. ANALYSIS: 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. AB 915 Page 2 2)Provides a temporary disability benefit of 2/3 of the employee's average weekly pay, subject to a current maximum weekly benefit of $1,066. 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. 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. This bill: 1)Repeals the provision in existing law that prohibits 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 provision in existing law that prohibits 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. Comments 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 AB 915 Page 3 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 any number of valid reasons makes little sense. FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.:NoLocal: No SUPPORT: (Verified6/18/15) California Federation of Teachers California Labor Federation California School Employees Association California Teachers Association OPPOSITION: (Verified6/18/15) Association of California School Administrators Orange County Department of Education ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 80-0, 5/14/15 AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Perea, Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins AB 915 Page 4 Prepared by:Lenin Del Castillo / ED. / (916) 651-4105 6/18/15 14:14:12 **** END ****