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New Changes in Workers'

Compensation Laws for Safety Officers

 

Safety Officer Presumptions  

For years, specific safety officers (police and fire) have benefited from presumptions that certain medical conditions (e.g., heart trouble, hernias, pneumonia, tuberculosis, cancer, hepatitis and meningitis) are work related and, therefore, covered by workers' compensation. The presumptions apply to conditions which develop during employment as a safety officer and for a period up to a maximum of five years after the employment ends. Beginning January 1, 2002, the following have been added to the safety officer presumptions:

  • 1.   Any "blood-borne infectious disease" will be presumed work related. Since hepatitis and meningitis are already included in the presumptions for most safety officers, this change will add such blood-borne infectious diseases as HIV.
     

  • 2.   Low back problems developed by law enforcement personnel who are required to wear a "duty belt" will be presumed work related after five years of police work.
     

  • 3.   Officers of the CHP will benefit from presumptions that tuberculosis, meningitis and hernias are work related and will have updated presumptions that heart trouble and pneumonia are work related.
     

  • 4.   For specified correctional and Youth Authority employees, pneumonia and meningitis will be presumed work related and the employees will have updated presumptions related to heart trouble and tuberculosis.
     

  • 5.   Lifeguards employed by specified public agencies, if they have worked at least three consecutive months in a calendar year, will be covered by a presumption that skin cancer is work related.

 

 

The above presumptions that certain medical conditions of safety officers are work related apply to workers' compensation claims but not to industrial disability retirement claims. Safety officers who are seeking industrial disability retirement benefits have not benefited from presumptions and still have to prove the conditions are work related. However, this year, a presumption that "blood-borne infectious diseases" are industrial was also added to the Government Code for PERS industrial disability retirements.