Bill Text: NJ S651 | 2022-2023 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Revises workers' compensation coverage for certain injuries to volunteer and professional public safety and law enforcement personnel.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-1)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2023-12-14 - Reported from Senate Committee with Amendments, 2nd Reading [S651 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2022-S651-Amended.html
[Second Reprint]
SENATE, No. 651
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
220th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2022 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Senator STEVEN V. OROHO
District 24 (Morris, Sussex and Warren)
Senator JOSEPH P. CRYAN
District 20 (Union)
Co-Sponsored by:
Senator Greenstein
SYNOPSIS
Revises workers' compensation coverage for certain injuries to volunteer and professional public safety and law enforcement personnel.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As reported by the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee on December 14, 2023, with amendments.
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 2response to the emergency included a work effort sufficient to cause2 injury or death 2[is fully] and thus2 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,] to2[,]2 or remediating from2[,]2 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; 1[and]1
(5) Any recognized emergency management member doing volunteer duty1;
(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 2[member] individual2 working as a 911 dispatcher1.
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 use1. 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 injury1.
2[e. Any cardiovascular or cerebrovascular injury or death-related incident resulting in a dispute as to compensability shall be decided coincidentally with the United States Department of Justice, Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program findings.]2
(cf: P.L.1987, c.382, s.1)
2. This act shall take effect immediately2[,]2 and shall 2[apply to all applicable injuries and deaths pending on the date of enactment] be retroactive to July 1, 20232.
