BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 897|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 897
Author: Roth (D)
Amended: 3/29/16
Vote: 21
SENATE LABOR & IND. REL. COMMITTEE: 4-0, 4/6/16
AYES: Mendoza, Stone, Leno, Mitchell
NO VOTE RECORDED: Jackson
SUBJECT: Workers compensation
SOURCE: California Professional Firefighters
Riverside Police Officers' Association
DIGEST: This bill grants an additional year of injury leave for
police officers, firefighters, or sheriffs if they suffer a
"catastrophic injury at the hands of another" during active duty
or through active firefighting operations.
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
duly authorized by the state.
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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".
This bill:
1)Extends an additional year of injury leave for city police
officers, city, county, or district firefighters, and sheriffs
if:
a) The injured worker is employed on a regular, full-time
basis regardless of their period of service; and
b) The injured worker suffers a "catastrophic injury at the
hands of another" during active duty through the actions of
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another or through active firefighting operations without
respect to the cause of the fire.
1)Defines a "catastrophic injury at the hands of another" as
including:
a) Severe burns;
b) Severe bodily injuries resulting from a building
collapse; and
c) Severe bodily injuries resulting from a shooting,
stabbing, or other battery.
3)Excludes peace officers from the City and County of San
Francisco and also clarifies that the injury leave cannot be
longer than 104 weeks.
Comments
1)Need for this bill
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.
This bill grants an additional year of paid leave for police
officers, sheriffs, and firefighters that suffer a
catastrophic injury at the hands of another. An example cited
by the author's office is Officer Andrew Tachias, who is with
the Riverside Police Department. In 2013, Officer Tachias was
ambushed and shot nine times by ex-LAPD Police Officer Charles
Dorner. In the same attack, Officer Tachias's partner, Officer
Michael Crain, was killed.
As of February of this year, Officer Tachias has returned to
duty. However, it took him three years of intensive work to be
able to do so. While the City of Riverside supported Officer
Tachias's efforts to return to active duty, such an outcome is
not currently required under existing law. This bill requires
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that, in cases like Officer Tachias, the injured officer would
be eligible for up to two years of paid leave without
reduction.
2)A Brief Word on Potential Pitfalls with SB 897
In conversations with Senate Labor and Industrial Relations
Committee staff, Senator Roth's office has conveyed that this
bill is a work in progress. As this bill moves through the
policy process, the author and the Committee may wish to
consider a few points:
"High Velocity Eye Injuries" and the Need for Specificity
In 2004, the Legislature passed SB 899 (Poochigian, Chapter
34), which was a significant reform of the entire workers'
compensation system. As a part of the bill, TD benefits were
limited to 104 weeks, except in certain specified cases. In
those cases, TD benefits were kept at the pre-2004 level of
240 weeks.
One of the exceptions was for "high velocity eye injuries",
which is the type of injury that evokes strong emotions and
intuitively makes sense as an exception to the TD cap of 104
weeks. However, the statute is silent on what is a high
velocity eye injury. Does it involve a projectile? Does the
projectile need to be moving at a specific speed? And why
should a high velocity eye injury be singled out when a low
velocity eye injury could result in a similar injury? As
recently as 2009, litigation on if a high velocity eye injury
needed to directly involve the eyeball was being heard by the
Worker' Compensation Appeals Board.
In short, specificity in workers' compensation legislation is
important. With this bill, the use of the modifier "severe"
(such as severe burns or severe bodily injury) is largely
undefined. The author may wish to consider specifying what
would constitute "severe" in this context. One method may be
through the use of the American Medical Association's Guides
to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (5th Edition). The
Guides provide a variety of examples of specific injuries and
their impairment classes. As an injured worker's impairment
needs to be measured through the use of the Guides under
existing law, this could be a useful tool to provide
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specificity and avoid unintended litigation.
Wage Replacement Leave and Disability Retirement
Under existing law, an injured peace officer may opt for a
disability retirement pension, which, barring settlement, must
be at least 50% of his or her highest salary. Some
stakeholders have argued that 4850 leave simply delays the
date of the disability retirement, rather than incentivizing
return to work. Senator Roth's Office has stated to the
Committee staff that they will attempt to address this issue.
One possible solution would be to divide the catastrophic
leave into two
six-month periods. After 18 months of leave (4850 leave plus six
months from SB 897), it may be possible for the injured worker
and his or her employer to figure out if returning to active
duty is feasible. If it is, then an additional six months of
leave is granted. If not, the injured worker would still be
entitled to six months of TD, perhaps followed by a disability
retirement, but would not be eligible for the SB 897 leave.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:NoLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified4/8/16)
California Professional Firefighters (co-source)
Riverside Police Officers' Association (co-source)
Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs
Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs
California Statewide Law Enforcement Association
Fraternal Order of Police
Laborers International Union of North America Locals 777 & 792
Long Beach Police Officers Association
Los Angeles County Professional Peace Officers Association
Los Angeles Police Protective League
Peace Officers Research Association of California
Riverside Sheriffs' Association
Sacramento County Deputy Sheriffs' Association
Service Employees International Union
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OPPOSITION: (Verified4/8/16)
California Association of Joint Powers Authorities
California Special Districts Association
California State Association of Counties
California State Association of Counties- Excess Insurance
Authority
California State Sheriffs' Association
City of Anderson
City of Fountain Valley
City of Menifee
City of Newport Beach
City of Rancho Cucamonga
City of Redding
City of Sacramento
City of San Luis Obispo
City of Torrance
City of Ventura
League of California Cities
Mayor and City Council of the City of Sacramento
Rural County Representatives of California
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: Proponents note that California's
firefighters, police officers, and sheriffs face significant
risks on the job, including a higher likelihood of injury.
Proponents argue that the existing leave provisions reflect
that, as the Governor and Legislature wanted to ensure that a
peace officer facing those risks would not face financial
devastation. Proponents argue that SB 897 continues this
tradition by granting California's firefighters, police
officers, and sheriffs an additional year of leave in order to
return to active duty after a catastrophic injury. Proponents
note that this extra year will allow firefighters, police
officers, and sheriffs to heal from their injuries and return to
work when they can, rather than rush back to work still injured
and possibly hurt themselves and others.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION: Opponents note that, under
current law, police officers, sheriffs, and firefighters have
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access to a year of paid leave under Labor Code Section 4850, as
well as a year of 2/3 wage replacement through TD benefits, both
of which are tax-free benefits. Opponents argue that these
benefits are significant, and are paid out by self-insured
cities and counties on a pay-as-you-go basis. Opponents argue
that requiring additional disability benefits will require
cities and counties to remove funding from existing services,
without necessarily resulting in the injured police officer,
sheriff, or firefighter returning to work.
Prepared by:Gideon Baum / L. & I.R. / (916) 651-1556
4/8/16 14:09:27
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