BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 933
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Date of Hearing: May 18, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 933 (Allen) - As Amended: April 7, 2011
Policy Committee: PERS Vote:4-2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill extends industrial death and disability benefits to
state miscellaneous members of the California Public Employees'
Retirement System (CalPERS) employed by a state hospital, as
specified. Specifically, this bill:
1)Extends industrial death and disability benefits to state
miscellaneous members who become injured or die as a direct
result of a violent act from a patient or client at a state
hospital where more than 50% of the patients are committed by
the court.
2)Specifies that this provision will only apply if the member
was performing his or her duties within a state hospital, the
member was within the state hospital but on a break, or the
member was not within the state hospital but was acting within
the scope of his or her regular duties, as specified.
3)Makes the bill's provisions condition upon either of the
following:
a) The member was employed in a state bargaining unit which
had bargained with the state to add this benefit by a
memorandum of understanding.
b) The member was either an excluded employee or nonelected
officer or employee of the executive branch of government.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)CalPERS estimates that the cost of the industrial disability
benefit will be .01 to .05 % of employee compensation at the
affected facilities.
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2)The five facilities that meet the bill's criteria have
approximately 10,500 personnel. Their total compensation is
about $750 million, so the disability benefit would cost
between approximately $2.5 million. The great majority of the
cost would occur only if agreed to through collective
bargaining. Excluded employees would gain this benefit upon
enactment of this bill.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . According to the author, "AB 933 provides disability
benefit parity to state miscellaneous employees that have been
physically attacked and injured while working in a state
hospital that houses patients who have been committed by
criminal courts. The number of patients in the state hospital
system who have committed violent crimes or alleged to have
committed violent crime has been increasing exponentially over
the last decade. In the 1990s the majority of hospital
patients were civil commitments but over the last 15 years the
demographics at the hospitals have drastically changed and
today 85% to 90% of the patients are there because they have a
criminal conviction or are alleged to have committed a crime.
As a result of the changing demographics and the inadequate
security infrastructure at the hospitals, facilities not
designed to house this kind of population, the state hospitals
have experienced a dramatic rise in the number of patient
attacks on hospital employees.
2)Prevalence of attacks . According to information from the
Department of Mental Health, in 2010, there were approximately
8,300 aggressive attacks resulting in over 5,100 injuries at
the five state hospitals. In over 2,200 of these incidents
the staff was the victim and in over 1,000 of those incidents
staff injuries resulted in medical treatment including one
death. There are five state hospitals - Atascadero, Coalinga,
Metropolitan, Napa, and Patton that meet the bill's criteria.
Over 92% of the DMH state hospital population are forensic
patients referred to the hospital by the criminal justice
system.
3)Support . Supporters state, despite working in such a
dangerous environment, disability coverage does not cover all
employees working in the state hospitals. Industrial
disability coverage is only available to safety employees and
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employees of the Porterville Developmental Center. AB 933
extends disability coverage to all miscellaneous employees
that work in a state hospital where 50% or more of the clients
are sent by California's criminal courts.
4)There is no registered opposition to this bill.
Analysis Prepared by : Roger Dunstan / APPR. / (916) 319-2081