AN ACT CONCERNING ADDITIONAL WORKERS' COMPENSATION PRESUMPTIONS FOR FIREFIGHTERS, POLICE OFFICERS AND EMERGENCY RESCUE WORKERS.

AN ACT CONCERNING ADDITIONAL WORKERS' COMPENSATION PRESUMPTIONS FOR FIREFIGHTERS, POLICE OFFICERS AND EMERGENCY RESCUE WORKERS.

This bill establishes the two rebuttable presumptions under workers' compensation law for specific ailments contracted or acquired by certain public safety employees through their work. Presumptions shift the burden of proof for a workers' compensation claim from the employee to the employer. The type of employee and the presumptive ailment for each are:

1. municipal and state police and firefighters, constables, volunteer firefighters, and emergency rescue workers who contract hepatitis, meningococcal meningitis, or tuberculosis (TB);

2. municipal and state firefighters and volunteer firefighters who suffer from the following types of cancer: (a) multiple myeloma, (b) non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, (c) prostate, or (d) testicular.

To fall under the bill's authority, the ailments must result in lost work time due to total or partial incapacity or death. The presumption that any of these ailments is due to the occupation is rebuttable, meaning it is presumed to be job-related unless the employer provides sufficient evidence that it is not.

Under current law, these ailments are compensable, but the burden of proof is on the employee to demonstrate the illness is job-related.

For purposes of providing the infectious disease presumption, the bill includes the following definitions:

1. “police officer or firefighter” is a local or state police officer or constable, a state or local firefighter, or an active member of a volunteer fire company or fire department engaged in volunteer, duties;

2. “constable” is a municipal law enforcement officer who is authorized to make arrests and has completed the Police Officer Standards and Training Council certification as prescribed by law; and

3. “emergency rescue worker” is local emergency medical technician, medical response technician, paramedic, ambulance driver, or active member of an organization certified as a volunteer ambulance service.

The bill provides that a firefighter, police officer, volunteer firefighter, or emergency rescue worker who suffers from one of these diseases, requires medical treatment, and either dies or is totally or partially incapacitated must be presumed to have sustained the ailment from the job unless (1) competent evidence shows the contrary or (2) the employee fails to meet one of the medical test or administrative requirements stated below. By law, volunteer firefighters are treated as employees, for workers compensation purposes, of the town where they volunteer.

To be included under the presumption, the employee or volunteer must have completed a physical exam, including a TB skin test, upon entry into the service, which failed to reveal evidence of any of the three diseases. Furthermore, an employee must present in cases of (1) meningitis, a written affidavit that in the 10 days prior to diagnosis, he or she was not exposed outside of work to anyone having or carrying the disease and (2) TB, a written affidavit that he or she was not exposed outside of work to anyone known to have the disease since the last negative TB skin test.

The bill applies to municipal and state police, firefighters and volunteer firefighters, and emergency rescue workers who, in the course of their employment, run a high risk of occupational exposure to hepatitis, meningococcal meningitis, or tuberculosis.

“High risk of occupational exposure” means a risk incurred because a person, in performing his basic duties:

1. provides emergency medical treatment outside of a healthcare setting where there is a potential for transferring body fluids;

2. handles body fluids, needles, or other sharp instruments exposed to body fluids at the site of an accident, fire, or other rescue or safety operation or in an emergency rescue or public safety vehicle; or

3. may be exposed to body fluids while pursuing, apprehending, or arresting of suspected law violators.

“Body fluids” are blood, fluids containing blood, and other body fluids for which universal precautions apply. For purposes of meningococcal meningitis or tuberculosis, they include respiratory, salivary, and sinus fluids, including droplets, that can transmit infectious airborne organisms.

The bill defines hepatitis as hepatitis A, hepatitis B, hepatitis non-A, hepatitis non-B, hepatitis C, or any other strain of hepatitis generally recognized in the medical community.

Covered employees must file a report with their employers about each known or suspected occupational exposure to hepatitis, meningococcal meningitis, or TB.

Employers must maintain a record of known or reasonably suspected cases of exposure to these diseases and must notify employees of such exposures immediately.

The bill also creates a presumption that a state or municipal firefighter or volunteer firefighter stricken with multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, prostate, or testicular cancer contracted the disease due to the job. The disease must also result in total or partial disability or death to trigger the presumption.

1. previously passed a physical upon entry into the occupation that revealed no evidence of these cancers;

2. was employed as a firefighter for at least five years;

3. established that he or she regularly responded to fire scenes or investigations during some part of his or her career; and

4. provided documentation that while responding to the scene of fires or fire investigations, he or she was exposed to a substance or substances scientifically determined to be causally related to the type of cancer stated in the compensation claim.

Under the bill, the presumption can be overcome if a preponderance of evidence shows that the illness was not contracted through firefighting.

By law, volunteer firefighters are considered employees of the town for which they volunteer for workers' compensation purposes.

Yea

Nay

(03/05/2009)