NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A2020A
SPONSOR: Reyes TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the workers' compensation law, in relation to claims for
mental injury premised upon extraordinary work-related stress
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
Expands to all workers the ability to receive PTSD coverage under NYS
Workers' Compensation Coverage identified work-related stress.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Amends paragraph (b) of subdivision 3 of section 10 of the workers'
compensation law, as added by section 1 of subpart I of part NNN of
chapter 59 of the laws of 2017 as follows: Where a worker files a claim
for mental injury premised upon extraordinary work-related stress
incurred the board may not disallow the claim, upon a factual finding
that the stress was not greater than that which usually occurs in the
normal work environment.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ORIGINAL AND AMENDED VERSION (IF APPLICABLE):
The amended version removes an errant comma in the existing law and
changes the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
In the 2017 enacted Budget PTSD coverage was added for certain first
responders who face stress--related injuries but were barred from such
coverage due to court rulings that this was in the normal course of
their occupation.
This bill expands to cover all workers to ensure that work-related PTSD
is properly identified and treated as part of the workers compensation
system.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2019-2020 - Referred to Labor 2017-2018 - Referred to Labor
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
None to State or Local Governments.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeeding the
date on which it shall have become a law.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
2020--A
2021-2022 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 14, 2021
___________
Introduced by M. of A. REYES, ABBATE, DINOWITZ, EPSTEIN, DeSTEFANO,
JEAN-PIERRE, CRUZ, SIMON, DE LA ROSA, GOTTFRIED, COLTON, DARLING --
Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. COOK -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Labor -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered
reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the workers' compensation law, in relation to claims for
mental injury premised upon extraordinary work-related stress
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraph (b) of subdivision 3 of section 10 of the work-
2 ers' compensation law, as added by section 1 of subpart I of part NNN of
3 chapter 59 of the laws of 2017, is amended to read as follows:
4 (b) Where a [police officer or firefighter subject to section thirty
5 of this article, or emergency medical technician, paramedic, or other
6 person certified to provide medical care in emergencies, or emergency
7 dispatcher] worker files a claim for mental injury premised upon
8 extraordinary work-related stress incurred [in a work-related emergency]
9 at work, the board may not disallow the claim[,] upon a factual finding
10 that the stress was not greater than that which usually occurs in the
11 normal work environment.
12 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeed-
13 ing the date on which it shall have become a law.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00070-05-1
