A2297

Sponsored by:

Assemblyman WAYNE P. DEANGELO

District 14 (Mercer and Middlesex)

Assemblyman CLINTON CALABRESE

District 36 (Bergen and Passaic)

Co-Sponsored by:

Assemblywoman Dunn

SYNOPSIS

Revises workers’ compensation coverage for certain injuries to volunteer and professional public safety and law enforcement personnel.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.

An Act concerning workers’ compensation coverage and amending P.L.1987, c.382.

Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

1. Section 1 of P.L.1987, c.382 (C.34:15-7.3) is amended to read as follows:

1. a. For any cardiovascular or cerebrovascular injury or death which occurs to an individual covered by subsection b. of this section while that individual is engaged in a response to an emergency, there shall be a rebuttable presumption that the response to the emergency included a work effort sufficient to cause injury or death [is] and thus compensable under R.S. 34:15-1 et seq., if that injury or death occurs while the individual is responding [, under orders from competent authority,] to or remediating from a law enforcement, public safety or medical emergency as defined in subsection c. of this section.

b. This section shall apply to:

(1) Any permanent or temporary member of a paid or part-paid fire or police department and force;

(2) Any member of a volunteer fire company;

(3) Any member of a volunteer first aid or rescue squad; [and]

(4) Any special, reserve, or auxiliary policeman doing volunteer duty;

(5) Any recognized emergency management member doing volunteer duty;

(6) Any career emergency medical technician or paramedic, employed by the State, a county, a municipality, or a private sector counterpart, who is engaged in public emergency medical and rescue services; and

(7) Any individual working as a 9-1-1 dispatcher.

c. As used in this section[,] :

"[law] Law enforcement, public safety or medical emergency" means any combination of circumstances requiring immediate action to prevent the loss of human life, the destruction of property, or the violation of the criminal laws of this State or its political subdivisions, and includes, but is not limited to, the suppression of a fire, a firemanic drill, the apprehension of a criminal, or medical and rescue service.

“Remediating from” means leaving an emergency in a reasonable period of time, not to exceed 24 hours from the end of the emergency, to carry out post-incident agency protocols and decompression including measures such as critical incident stress debriefings.

d. The presumption of compensability pursuant to subsection a. of this section shall be rebuttable by use of casual factors such as horseplay, skylarking, self-infliction, voluntary intoxication, and illicit drug use. Rebuttal of the presumption based upon medical causation shall require clear and convincing medical evidence that the work experience was not a substantial cause of the cardiovascular or cerebrovascular injury.

(cf: P.L.1987, c.382, s.1)

2. This act shall take effect immediately, and shall apply to all applicable injuries and deaths pending on the date of enactment.

STATEMENT

This bill revises the law governing workers’ compensation coverage for certain injuries to volunteer and professional public safety and law enforcement personnel.

Under current law, there is a rebuttable presumption that any cardiovascular or cerebrovascular injury or death which occurs to individuals who are volunteer and professional public safety and law enforcement personnel while those individuals are engaged in a response to an emergency is compensable if that injury or death occurs while the individual is responding, under orders from competent authority, to an emergency. As amended, the bill clarifies that the rebuttable presumption means that a response to an emergency was a work effort sufficient to cause injury or death and is therefore compensable under the workers’ compensation law.

This bill expands the individuals that are covered by the presumption to include any recognized emergency management member doing volunteer duty, any career emergency medical technicians and paramedics employed by the State, a county, a municipality, or a private sector counterpart who is engaged in public emergency medical and rescue services, and any individual working as a 9-1-1 dispatcher. It also removes the requirement that the individual must be responding to orders under competent authority in order to recover, and provides that individuals are covered by the presumption when remediating from an emergency.

The bill provides that a rebuttal of the presumption of compensability requires clear and convincing medical evidence that the work experience was not a substantial cause of the cardiovascular or cerebrovascular injury.

The bill provides that the presumption of compensability is rebuttable by use of casual factors such as horseplay, skylarking, self-infliction, voluntary intoxication, and illicit drug use.