BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1451
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
1451 (Chávez)
As Amended March 26, 2015
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes |Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+--------------------+--------------------|
|Insurance |8-2 |Daly, Calderon, |Beth Gaines, Travis |
| | |Cooley, Cooper, |Allen |
| | |Dababneh, Gatto, | |
| | |Gonzalez, Mayes | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Authorizes enhanced temporary disability benefits (known
as "4850 time" for specified lifeguards employed by the City of
Oceanside. Specifically, this bill:
1)Adds lifeguards employed by the City of Oceanside on a
full-time, year-round basis to the class of public safety
employees who receive special, enhanced temporary disability
benefits when they are unable to work due to illness or injury
that arose out of, or in the course of, employment.
2)Includes legislative findings that a special law is necessary
within the meaning of California Constitution Article IV,
Section 16.
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EXISTING LAW:
1)Provides for a comprehensive system of benefits paid for by
employers to employees who suffer illness or injury that arises
out of, or in the course of, employment.
2)Includes temporary disability benefits (TD) for up to 104 weeks
if an employee is temporarily unable to work during recuperation
from the workplace illness or injury.
3)Establishes a minimum and a maximum amount that an employee may
receive, which is adjusted annually to reflect rising wage
levels. Currently the minimum benefit is $165 per week, and the
maximum benefit is $1,103. The benefit is calculated based on
two-thirds of an employee's average weekly wages, subject to the
maximum cap.
4)Provides specified public safety officers with an enhanced
temporary disability benefit for up to the first year of
temporary disability. These safety officers receive their full
salary (tax free) during the first year of temporary disability.
5)Includes lifeguards who are full time year round employees of
the County of Los Angeles and the City of San Diego among the
safety officers who are entitled to this special enhanced
temporary disability benefit.
6)Provides that a special statute is invalid if a general statute
could be made applicable.
FISCAL EFFECT: Undetermined increased workers' compensation costs
to the City of Oceanside.
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COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. According to the author, this bill is intended to
correct an oversight that left out the City of Oceanside
lifeguards when the City of San Diego lifeguards were added to
the "4850" leave of absence law in 2013, when SB 527 (Block),
Chapter 66, Statutes of 2013 - was enacted. The author asserts
that the Oceanside lifeguards "have the same responsibilities,
training, and meet the mandates of the law to receive the
benefit". The author asserts that both the employer and
employee association agree (as was the case with the expansion
for City of San Diego lifeguards) that this change is
appropriate.
2)Collective bargaining? If a local public agency wants to grant
employees certain benefits of employment, it is able to
accomplish that goal without need for a statutory change. In
fact, the City of Los Angeles has provided "4850-like" benefits
to a range of employees without need of a statute mandating the
benefit for those employees. If it is correct, as the author
asserts, that both the City and its employees are in agreement,
then the collective bargaining process, and not legislation, may
be the better approach to enhancing the benefits of this class
of employee.
3)Temporary disability benefits. The goal of TD is to approximate
an employee's take home pay during the period after injury when
the employee is temporarily unable to work. This goal is
implemented by basing the weekly TD benefit on two-thirds of the
employee's average weekly wages. Because there is a cap,
employees who make more than approximately $1,600 per week do
not reach this two-thirds goal, but because the benefit is tax
free, most employees receive an adequate TD benefit while they
are recovering.
4)Special public safety benefits. Public safety officers (police,
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sheriff, and firefighter employees generally) receive certain
special workers' compensation benefits that other employees do
not receive. Most notably, this class of employee has the
benefit of a range of "presumptions" that certain illnesses or
injuries are automatically deemed to be work related. All other
employees are required to prove that their condition is work
related. The second significant special workers' compensation
benefit is granted by Labor Code Section 4850 - commonly
referred to as "4850 time" - and this law grants defined
employees up to one year of full salary in lieu of the regular
method for calculating TD benefits. The author asserts that
these lifeguards are sufficiently like other peace officers as
to justify awarding them the special disability leave benefits.
5)Tax advantages. Because these benefits are paid due to
disability, they are not subject to either state or federal
taxes. This applies to regular TD benefits, and to 4850
benefits. Because of the tax-free status of this benefit, a
public safety officer takes home substantially more in weekly
benefits than they normally earn while working - i.e., normal
take home pay plus what would have been paid in taxes. Public
employers have long complained that this creates a disincentive
in getting injured public safety officers to return to work,
even if they are able, due to the financial loss they would
suffer when they return. The extent of the return to work
disincentive may be unclear with respect to these particular
employees, but factually, they make more money while off duty
than when they return.
6)Lifeguards. It appears that the year round, full-time
lifeguards employed by Los Angeles County were included in the
original legislation in 1983 that established Labor Code Section
4850. It is not clear why those employees were included, nor
whether they perform substantially public safety and law
enforcement duties, as is claimed by the City of San Diego or
the City of Oceanside lifeguards. However, if the expansion of
public safety officer benefits to other classes of employee is
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appropriate, the legislation should be clear that the employees
must be public safety officers.
In addition, if there is a class of employee - lifeguards
employed by various city, county, state park, or special
district employers -- it is not clear why a "special law" is an
appropriate vehicle to provide this class of employees with
safety officer special benefits. A general law, applicable to
the whole class of employees, may be more appropriate if, in
fact, these employees perform comparable peace officer duties as
the broader class of peace officers who receive this benefit.
Analysis Prepared by:
Mark Rakich / INS. / (916) 319-2086 FN: 0000362