093_SB0632eng

 
SB632 Engrossed                      LRB093 10674 WGH 11299 b

 1        AN ACT concerning workplace health.

 2        Be  it  enacted  by  the People of the State of Illinois,
 3    represented in the General Assembly:

 4        Section 5.  The Workers' Compensation Act is  amended  by
 5    changing Section 11 as follows:

 6        (820 ILCS 305/11) (from Ch. 48, par. 138.11)
 7        Sec. 11.  The compensation herein provided, together with
 8    the  provisions  of  this  Act,  shall  be the measure of the
 9    responsibility  of  any  employer  engaged  in  any  of   the
10    enterprises  or  businesses  enumerated  in Section 3 of this
11    Act, or of any employer  who  is  not  engaged  in  any  such
12    enterprises or businesses, but who has elected to provide and
13    pay  compensation  for  accidental  injuries sustained by any
14    employee arising out of and in the course of  the  employment
15    according  to  the provisions of this Act, and whose election
16    to continue under this Act, has not  been  nullified  by  any
17    action of his employees as provided for in this Act.
18        Accidental   injuries  incurred  while  participating  in
19    voluntary recreational programs including but not limited  to
20    athletic  events, parties and picnics do not arise out of and
21    in the course of the employment even though the employer pays
22    some or all of the cost thereof.  This  exclusion  shall  not
23    apply  in  the event that the injured employee was ordered or
24    assigned by his employer to participate in the program.
25        Accidental injuries incurred  while  participating  as  a
26    patient  in  a  drug or alcohol rehabilitation program do not
27    arise out of and in the course of employment even though  the
28    employer pays some or all of the costs thereof.
29        Any  injury  to  or death of an employee arising from the
30    administration of a  vaccine,  including  without  limitation
31    smallpox  vaccine,  to  prepare  for,  or as a response to, a
 
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 1    threatened or potential bioterrorist incident to the employee
 2    as part of a voluntary inoculation program in connection with
 3    the  person's  employment   or   in   connection   with   any
 4    governmental program or recommendation for the inoculation of
 5    workers  in  the employee's occupation, geographical area, or
 6    other category that includes the employee is deemed to  arise
 7    out of and in the course of employment for all purposes under
 8    this Act. This amendatory Act of the 93rd General Assembly is
 9    declarative of existing law and is not a new enactment.
10    (Source: P.A. 81-1482.)

11        Section  10.   The  Workers' Occupational Diseases Act is
12    amended by changing Section 1 as follows:

13        (820 ILCS 310/1) (from Ch. 48, par. 172.36)
14        Sec. 1.  This Act shall be known and may be cited as  the
15    "Workers' Occupational Diseases Act".
16        (a)  The  term  "employer"  as  used in this Act shall be
17    construed to be:
18        1.  The State and  each  county,  city,  town,  township,
19    incorporated  village,  school  district,  body  politic,  or
20    municipal corporation therein.
21        2.   Every  person,  firm, public or private corporation,
22    including hospitals, public service, eleemosynary,  religious
23    or  charitable  corporations  or  associations,  who  has any
24    person in service or under any contract for hire, express  or
25    implied, oral or written.
26        3.   Where an employer operating under and subject to the
27    provisions of this Act loans  an  employee  to  another  such
28    employer  and  such  loaned  employee  sustains a compensable
29    occupational disease in  the  employment  of  such  borrowing
30    employer  and  where such borrowing employer does not provide
31    or pay the benefits  or  payments  due  such  employee,  such
32    loaning  employer  shall  be  liable  to  provide  or pay all
 
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 1    benefits or payments due such employee under this Act and  as
 2    to  such employee the liability of such loaning and borrowing
 3    employers shall be joint  and  several,  provided  that  such
 4    loaning  employer  shall  in  the absence of agreement to the
 5    contrary be entitled to receive from such borrowing  employer
 6    full  reimbursement for all sums paid or incurred pursuant to
 7    this paragraph together with reasonable attorneys'  fees  and
 8    expenses  in any hearings before the Industrial Commission or
 9    in any  action  to  secure  such  reimbursement.   Where  any
10    benefit  is  provided  or  paid by such loaning employer, the
11    employee  shall  have  the  duty  of   rendering   reasonable
12    co-operation  in  any  hearings, trials or proceedings in the
13    case, including such proceedings for reimbursement.
14        Where an employee files an Application for Adjustment  of
15    Claim with the Industrial Commission alleging that his or her
16    claim   is   covered  by  the  provisions  of  the  preceding
17    paragraph, and joining both the alleged loaning and borrowing
18    employers, they and each of them, upon written demand by  the
19    employee  and  within  7  days  after receipt of such demand,
20    shall have the duty of filing with the Industrial  Commission
21    a  written  admission  or  denial  of the allegation that the
22    claim is covered by the provisions of the preceding paragraph
23    and in default of such  filing  or  if  any  such  denial  be
24    ultimately  determined  not  to  have been bona fide then the
25    provisions of Paragraph K of Section 19  of  this  Act  shall
26    apply.
27        An employer whose business or enterprise or a substantial
28    part  thereof  consists  of  hiring,  procuring or furnishing
29    employees to or  for  other  employers  operating  under  and
30    subject  to the provisions of this Act for the performance of
31    the work of such other employers and who pays such  employees
32    their  salary or wage notwithstanding that they are doing the
33    work of such  other  employers  shall  be  deemed  a  loaning
34    employer within the meaning and provisions of this Section.
 
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 1        (b)  The  term  "employee"  as used in this Act, shall be
 2    construed to mean:
 3        1.  Every person in the service  of  the  State,  county,
 4    city,   town,   township,   incorporated  village  or  school
 5    district, body  politic  or  municipal  corporation  therein,
 6    whether by election, appointment or contract of hire, express
 7    or  implied,  oral  or written, including any official of the
 8    State, or of any county, city, town,  township,  incorporated
 9    village,   school   district,   body   politic  or  municipal
10    corporation therein and except any duly appointed  member  of
11    the  fire  department  in  any  city whose population exceeds
12    500,000 according to the last Federal or  State  census,  and
13    except  any member of a fire insurance patrol maintained by a
14    board of underwriters  in  this  State.  One  employed  by  a
15    contractor  who  has  contracted with the State, or a county,
16    city, town, township, incorporated village, school  district,
17    body  politic  or  municipal corporation therein, through its
18    representatives, shall not be considered as  an  employee  of
19    the   State,   county,  city,  town,  township,  incorporated
20    village,  school  district,   body   politic   or   municipal
21    corporation which made the contract.
22        2.  Every  person  in  the  service  of another under any
23    contract of hire, express or implied, oral  or  written,  who
24    contracts  an occupational disease while working in the State
25    of Illinois, or who contracts an occupational  disease  while
26    working  outside  of  the  State  of  Illinois  but where the
27    contract of hire is made within the State  of  Illinois,  and
28    any  person  whose employment is principally localized within
29    the State of Illinois, regardless  of  the  place  where  the
30    disease  was  contracted  or place where the contract of hire
31    was made, including aliens, and minors who, for  the  purpose
32    of this Act, except Section 3 hereof, shall be considered the
33    same  and  have  the same power to contract, receive payments
34    and give quittances therefor, as adult employees. An employee
 
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 1    or his or her dependents under this  Act  who  shall  have  a
 2    cause  of  action  by  reason  of  an  occupational  disease,
 3    disablement  or death arising out of and in the course of his
 4    or her employment may elect or pursue his or  her  remedy  in
 5    the  State  where the disease was contracted, or in the State
 6    where the contract of hire is made, or in the State where the
 7    employment is principally localized.
 8        (c)  "Commission" means the Industrial Commission created
 9    by the Workers' Compensation Act, approved July 9,  1951,  as
10    amended.
11        (d)  In  this Act the term "Occupational Disease" means a
12    disease arising out of and in the course of the employment or
13    which has become  aggravated  and  rendered  disabling  as  a
14    result  of  the exposure of the employment.  Such aggravation
15    shall arise out of a risk peculiar to  or  increased  by  the
16    employment and not common to the general public.
17        A  disease shall be deemed to arise out of the employment
18    if there is apparent to the rational mind, upon consideration
19    of all the circumstances, a  causal  connection  between  the
20    conditions   under  which  the  work  is  performed  and  the
21    occupational disease. The  disease  need  not  to  have  been
22    foreseen or expected but after its contraction it must appear
23    to  have  had  its  origin or aggravation in a risk connected
24    with the employment and to have flowed from that source as  a
25    rational consequence.
26        An  employee  shall  be  conclusively deemed to have been
27    exposed to the hazards of an occupational disease  when,  for
28    any length of time however short, he or she is employed in an
29    occupation  or  process  in  which  the hazard of the disease
30    exists; provided however, that in  a  claim  of  exposure  to
31    atomic  radiation, the fact of such exposure must be verified
32    by the records of the central registry of radiation  exposure
33    maintained  by  the  Department  of  Public Health or by some
34    other recognized governmental agency maintaining  records  of
 
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 1    such  exposures  whenever  and to the extent that the records
 2    are on file with the  Department  of  Public  Health  or  the
 3    agency.
 4        Any  disease  or  death  of  an employee arising from the
 5    administration of a  vaccine,  including  without  limitation
 6    smallpox  vaccine,  to  prepare  for,  or as a response to, a
 7    threatened or potential bioterrorist incident to the employee
 8    as part of a voluntary inoculation program in connection with
 9    the  person's  employment   or   in   connection   with   any
10    governmental program or recommendation for the inoculation of
11    workers  in  the employee's occupation, geographical area, or
12    other category that includes the employee is deemed to  arise
13    out of and in the course of employment for all purposes under
14    this Act. This amendatory Act of the 93rd General Assembly is
15    declarative of existing law and is not a new enactment.
16        The  employer  liable  for  the  compensation in this Act
17    provided shall  be  the  employer  in  whose  employment  the
18    employee  was  last exposed to the hazard of the occupational
19    disease claimed upon regardless of the length of time of such
20    last exposure, except, in cases of silicosis  or  asbestosis,
21    the  only employer liable shall be the last employer in whose
22    employment the employee was last exposed during a  period  of
23    60  days or more after the effective date of this Act, to the
24    hazard of such occupational disease, and, in such  cases,  an
25    exposure  during  a  period  of  less than 60 days, after the
26    effective date of this  Act,  shall  not  be  deemed  a  last
27    exposure.   If  a  miner  who  is  suffering or suffered from
28    pneumoconiosis was employed for 10 years or more  in  one  or
29    more  coal  mines  there  shall,  effective July 1, 1973 be a
30    rebuttable presumption that his or her  pneumoconiosis  arose
31    out of such employment.
32        If  a deceased miner was employed for 10 years or more in
33    one or more coal mines and died  from  a  respirable  disease
34    there   shall,  effective  July  1,  1973,  be  a  rebuttable
 
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 1    presumption that his or her death was due to pneumoconiosis.
 2        The insurance carrier liable shall be the  carrier  whose
 3    policy was in effect covering the employer liable on the last
 4    day  of  the  exposure  rendering  such  employer  liable  in
 5    accordance with the provisions of this Act.
 6        (e)  "Disablement"   means   an   impairment  or  partial
 7    impairment, temporary or permanent, in the  function  of  the
 8    body  or  any  of  the  members  of the body, or the event of
 9    becoming disabled from earning full  wages  at  the  work  in
10    which  the  employee  was  engaged  when  last exposed to the
11    hazards of the occupational disease by the employer from whom
12    he or she  claims  compensation,  or  equal  wages  in  other
13    suitable  employment;  and  "disability"  means  the state of
14    being so incapacitated.
15        (f)  No compensation shall be payable for or  on  account
16    of  any  occupational  disease  unless disablement, as herein
17    defined, occurs within two years after the last  day  of  the
18    last  exposure to the hazards of the disease, except in cases
19    of occupational disease  caused  by  berylliosis  or  by  the
20    inhalation  of  silica  dust  or  asbestos  dust and, in such
21    cases, within 3 years after the last day of the last exposure
22    to the hazards of such disease and  except  in  the  case  of
23    occupational  disease  caused  by  exposure  to  radiological
24    materials  or  equipment,  and  in such case, within 25 years
25    after the last day of last exposure to the  hazards  of  such
26    disease.
27    (Source: P.A. 81-992.)

28        Section  99.  Effective date.  This Act takes effect upon
29    becoming law.