BILL ANALYSIS Ó
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1451|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1451
Author: Chávez (R)
Amended: 3/26/15 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE LABOR & IND. REL. COMMITTEE: 5-0, 6/24/15
AYES: Mendoza, Stone, Jackson, Leno, Mitchell
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 65-7, 6/4/15 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Workers compensation: public employees
SOURCE: Oceanside Police Officers' Association
DIGEST: This bill extends "4850 leave" to lifeguards employed
on an annual, full-time basis by the City of Oceanside.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Establishes a workers' compensation system that provides
benefits to an employee who suffers from an injury or illness
that arises out of and in the course of employment,
irrespective of fault. This system requires all employers to
secure payment of benefits by either securing the consent of
the Department of Industrial Relations to self-insure or by
securing insurance against liability from an insurance company
AB 1451
Page 2
duly authorized by the state.
2)Provides for the payment of indemnity benefits if the
occupational injury causes temporary or permanent disability
which prevents the worker from returning to his or her job.
In the case of temporary disability (TD) payments, the benefit
is two-thirds of the weekly loss in wages due to disability
for up to 104 weeks within five years (Labor Code §§4650,
4653, 4654 and 4656).
3)Provides that certain public employees employed on a regular,
full-time basis regardless of their period of service, who
incur on the job injury or illness, are entitled to receive
disability payment for up to one year. These employees
include:
a) City police officers;
b) City, county, or district firefighters;
c) Sheriffs;
d) Inspectors, investigators, detectives, or personnel with
comparable titles in any district attorney's office;
e) County probation officers, group counselors, or juvenile
services officers; and
f) Lifeguards employed by Los Angeles County or the City of
San Diego.
This leave of absence is set forth in Labor Code Section 4850
and is sometimes referred to as "4850 leave".
AB 1451
Page 3
This bill allows lifeguards employed year-round by the City of
Oceanside on a regular, full-time basis to be eligible for 4850
leave.
Background
As was discussed above, California's workers' compensation
system provides a TD indemnity benefit for injured workers who
are temporarily unable to return to work. TD benefits replace
up to 66% of an injured workers' pay for up to two years.
However, for California's peace officers, state law requires
that 100% of the injured worker's pay is provided in lieu of the
first year of TD benefits. This is known as "4850 leave", named
after the Labor Code section which creates the leave.
SB 527 (Block, Chapter 66, Statutes of 2013) extends 4850 leave
to the City of San Diego's lifeguards. As was noted in the
Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee analysis at the
time, San Diego's lifeguards perform many of the same duties as
peace officers, including arrests and rescues, and they are a
division of San Diego's Fire-Rescue Department. Currently, San
Diego's lifeguards are the only municipal lifeguards who are
eligible to receive 4850 leave.
AB 1451 extends 4850 leave to full-time lifeguards employed by
the City of Oceanside. The Oceanside Lifeguard Service operates
seven days per week all year, with the times varying on the time
of year. Oceanside employee six lifeguards on a full-time basis,
with 60 lifeguards hired seasonally. In 2012, the Oceanside
Lifeguard Service conducted 2,085 water rescues and 43 boat
rescues.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:NoLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified6/24/15)
Oceanside Police Officers' Association (source)
AB 1451
Page 4
City of Oceanside
OPPOSITION: (Verified6/24/15)
None received
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: Proponents note that SB 527 (Block,
2013) allowed San Diego's lifeguards to be eligible for 4850
leave, but did not extend this leave to other cities'
lifeguards. Proponents argue that the City of Oceanside's
lifeguards perform nearly the same function as San Diego's
lifeguards, yet are excluded from 4850 leave simply for working
for a different city a few miles away. Proponents argue that
this bill will correct this inequity and provide support to
public safety personnel who put their lives on the line.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 65-7, 6/4/15
AYES: Alejo, Baker, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown,
Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu,
Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Cristina Garcia,
Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gray, Roger
Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Lackey, Levine,
Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty,
Medina, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Perea,
Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark
Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams,
Wood, Atkins
NOES: Travis Allen, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Grove, Hadley, Kim,
Patterson
NO VOTE RECORDED: Achadjian, Bigelow, Dahle, Frazier, Gordon,
Harper, Melendez, Rodriguez
Prepared by:Gideon Baum / L. & I.R. / (916) 651-1556
6/29/15 15:53:59
**** END ****
AB 1451
Page 5