BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1155
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 1155 (Alejo, Roger Hern�ndez and Lara)
As Amended August 30, 2011
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |47-26|(May 12, 2011) |SENATE: |24-13|(September 7, |
| | | | | |2011) |
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Original Committee Reference: INS.
SUMMARY : States that the percentage of disability determined by
a physician to have been due to factors other than the
industrial injury shall not include consideration of race,
religious creed, color, national origin, age, gender, marital
status, sex, sexual orientation, or genetic characteristics.
The Senate amendments :
1)Delete the legislative findings in the bill as passed by the
Assembly, and insert different legislative findings that
provide:
a) Workers' compensation benefits should not be based
on risk factors or personal characteristics;
b) The Legislature intends that risk factors or
personal characteristics, including race, religious
creed, color, national origin, age, gender, marital
status, sex, sexual orientation, or genetic
characteristics, not be used to reduce or deny an injured
worker his or her rightful benefits; and,
c) It is not the intent of the legislation that
apportionment be restricted if there is a documentable
condition that is nonindustrial or not attributable to
the employer's employment of the injured worker.
2)Delete the prohibition that the characteristics noted above
"shall not be considered a cause or other factor of
disability," and instead provide that the percentage of
disability the physician determines to be caused by other
factors "shall not include consideration of" these
characteristics.
AB 1155
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EXISTING LAW :
1)Provides for a comprehensive system of workers' compensation
benefits for injuries to employees arising out of or in the
course of employment, including permanent disability benefits.
2)Allows for the apportionment of a condition, based on the
treating physician's report, to nonindustrial causes, with the
resulting reduction of the permanent disability benefit to the
extent the condition was not caused as a result of employment.
3)Does not explicitly address application of apportionment
involving the characteristics noted above, but unpublished
case law has been consistent with the legislative findings
adopted in the Senate.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill provided that race,
religious creed, color, national origin, age, gender, marital
status, sex, sexual orientation, or genetic characteristics
shall not be considered a cause or other factor of disability
with respect to apportionment of permanent disability.
COMMENTS : Proponents of this bill have argued that, while it is
true that case law has not been published contrary to the
purposes of the bill, physicians consistently apportion
improperly, thus generating litigation to overcome improper
reliance on immutable characteristics. The goal of the bill is
to provide a clear statement to guide physicians' apportionment
decisions.
The Senate amendments, while not resulting in the removal of
opposition, are the proponents' effort to make the bill a
simpler statement of its intent, and unlikely to cause confusion
or litigation in the workers' compensation adjudication system.
Analysis prepared by : Mark Rakich / INS / (916) 319-2086
FN: 0002816