Making Progress for Change

On May 17^th, I joined a 50-person contingent of the California Applicants’ Attorneys Association (CAAA) at the Capitol in Sacramento for CAAA's annual lobby day.  After 7 years of seeing Arnold's name emblazoned in gold letters over the entrance to the Governor's office, it was a pleasure to enter the building and see it gone!  I just wanted to take a few minutes to update you on the three bills CAAA is currently sponsoring.  All three bills are working their way through the Legislature.

AB 1155 (Alejo and 24 Assembly co-authors) was passed out of the Assembly and is on its way to the Senate Industrial Relations Committee for consideration.  This is an anti-discrimination bill banning apportionment of permanent disability based solely on "race, religious creed, color, national origin, age, gender, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, or genetic characteristics."  Unbelievably this sort of discrimination is still going on and had the blessing of the former Governor (given his prior vetoes of the same bill).

AB 947 (Solorio) was passed out of the Assembly and is on its way to the Senate Industrial Relations Committee.  This is an extension to the law limiting temporary disability to two-years regardless of how long your disability lasts.  This bill requires a doctor to determine if an extension is needed to the two-year cap on temporary disability benefits based on treatment required before one can be considered at Maximum Medical Improvement (MMI).  The bill limits limit temporary disability to no more than 240 weeks, and prohibits extensions if the disabled worker "willfully" delays treatment.  This bill would prevent the most seriously injured people from being penalized because the extent of their injuries requires long-term treatment which exceeds the duration of their temporary disability payments.

SB 432 (De Leon) recently passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee. This bill addresses concerns related to major hotel chains in California that still require housekeepers to lift heavy beds and use flat sheets, often resulting in serious injuries to workers.  Hotels are also failing to provide long-handled mops, resulting in housekeepers cleaning bathroom floors on their hands and knees, causing many unnecessary injuries. I have previously blogged about this bill and we hope that this will put an end to this story which very much resembles the battle the farm workers fought to eliminate the “short-handled hoe.”

During our Lobby Day visits, we distributed a fact sheet and graphs showing the huge unintended reduction in permanent disability compensation and highlighting the sharp drop in insurance rates since January 2004.  I encourage you to take a look at these materials and consider disseminating them to your local legislators.

I will keep you posted on further developments regarding these bills and other workers compensation- related bills.