99TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2015 and 2016
SB1415

 

Introduced 2/20/2015, by Sen. Linda Holmes

 

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
 
820 ILCS 310/1  from Ch. 48, par. 172.36
30 ILCS 805/8.39 new

    Amends the Workers' Occupational Diseases Act. Provides that any condition or impairment of health of a firefighter, emergency medical technician, or paramedic that results directly or indirectly from Parkinson's disease resulting in any disability to the employee shall be rebuttably presumed to arise out of and in the course of the employee's firefighting, EMT, or paramedic employment and shall be rebuttably presumed to be causally connected to the hazards or exposures of the employment, except as otherwise specified. Amends the State Mandates Act to require implementation without reimbursement by the State. Effective immediately.


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FISCAL NOTE ACT MAY APPLY
STATE MANDATES ACT MAY REQUIRE REIMBURSEMENT

 

 

A BILL FOR

 

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1    AN ACT concerning employment.
 
2    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3represented in the General Assembly:
 
4    Section 5. The Workers' Occupational Diseases Act is
5amended by changing Section 1 as follows:
 
6    (820 ILCS 310/1)  (from Ch. 48, par. 172.36)
7    Sec. 1. This Act shall be known and may be cited as the
8"Workers' Occupational Diseases Act".
9    (a) The term "employer" as used in this Act shall be
10construed to be:
11        1. The State and each county, city, town, township,
12    incorporated village, school district, body politic, or
13    municipal corporation therein.
14        2. Every person, firm, public or private corporation,
15    including hospitals, public service, eleemosynary,
16    religious or charitable corporations or associations, who
17    has any person in service or under any contract for hire,
18    express or implied, oral or written.
19        3. Where an employer operating under and subject to the
20    provisions of this Act loans an employee to another such
21    employer and such loaned employee sustains a compensable
22    occupational disease in the employment of such borrowing
23    employer and where such borrowing employer does not provide

 

 

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1    or pay the benefits or payments due such employee, such
2    loaning employer shall be liable to provide or pay all
3    benefits or payments due such employee under this Act and
4    as to such employee the liability of such loaning and
5    borrowing employers shall be joint and several, provided
6    that such loaning employer shall in the absence of
7    agreement to the contrary be entitled to receive from such
8    borrowing employer full reimbursement for all sums paid or
9    incurred pursuant to this paragraph together with
10    reasonable attorneys' fees and expenses in any hearings
11    before the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission or in
12    any action to secure such reimbursement. Where any benefit
13    is provided or paid by such loaning employer, the employee
14    shall have the duty of rendering reasonable co-operation in
15    any hearings, trials or proceedings in the case, including
16    such proceedings for reimbursement.
17        Where an employee files an Application for Adjustment
18    of Claim with the Illinois Workers' Compensation
19    Commission alleging that his or her claim is covered by the
20    provisions of the preceding paragraph, and joining both the
21    alleged loaning and borrowing employers, they and each of
22    them, upon written demand by the employee and within 7 days
23    after receipt of such demand, shall have the duty of filing
24    with the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission a
25    written admission or denial of the allegation that the
26    claim is covered by the provisions of the preceding

 

 

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1    paragraph and in default of such filing or if any such
2    denial be ultimately determined not to have been bona fide
3    then the provisions of Paragraph K of Section 19 of this
4    Act shall apply.
5        An employer whose business or enterprise or a
6    substantial part thereof consists of hiring, procuring or
7    furnishing employees to or for other employers operating
8    under and subject to the provisions of this Act for the
9    performance of the work of such other employers and who
10    pays such employees their salary or wage notwithstanding
11    that they are doing the work of such other employers shall
12    be deemed a loaning employer within the meaning and
13    provisions of this Section.
14    (b) The term "employee" as used in this Act, shall be
15construed to mean:
16        1. Every person in the service of the State, county,
17    city, town, township, incorporated village or school
18    district, body politic or municipal corporation therein,
19    whether by election, appointment or contract of hire,
20    express or implied, oral or written, including any official
21    of the State, or of any county, city, town, township,
22    incorporated village, school district, body politic or
23    municipal corporation therein and except any duly
24    appointed member of the fire department in any city whose
25    population exceeds 500,000 according to the last Federal or
26    State census, and except any member of a fire insurance

 

 

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1    patrol maintained by a board of underwriters in this State.
2    One employed by a contractor who has contracted with the
3    State, or a county, city, town, township, incorporated
4    village, school district, body politic or municipal
5    corporation therein, through its representatives, shall
6    not be considered as an employee of the State, county,
7    city, town, township, incorporated village, school
8    district, body politic or municipal corporation which made
9    the contract.
10        2. Every person in the service of another under any
11    contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written, who
12    contracts an occupational disease while working in the
13    State of Illinois, or who contracts an occupational disease
14    while working outside of the State of Illinois but where
15    the contract of hire is made within the State of Illinois,
16    and any person whose employment is principally localized
17    within the State of Illinois, regardless of the place where
18    the disease was contracted or place where the contract of
19    hire was made, including aliens, and minors who, for the
20    purpose of this Act, except Section 3 hereof, shall be
21    considered the same and have the same power to contract,
22    receive payments and give quittances therefor, as adult
23    employees. An employee or his or her dependents under this
24    Act who shall have a cause of action by reason of an
25    occupational disease, disablement or death arising out of
26    and in the course of his or her employment may elect or

 

 

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1    pursue his or her remedy in the State where the disease was
2    contracted, or in the State where the contract of hire is
3    made, or in the State where the employment is principally
4    localized.
5    (c) "Commission" means the Illinois Workers' Compensation
6Commission created by the Workers' Compensation Act, approved
7July 9, 1951, as amended.
8    (d) In this Act the term "Occupational Disease" means a
9disease arising out of and in the course of the employment or
10which has become aggravated and rendered disabling as a result
11of the exposure of the employment. Such aggravation shall arise
12out of a risk peculiar to or increased by the employment and
13not common to the general public.
14    A disease shall be deemed to arise out of the employment if
15there is apparent to the rational mind, upon consideration of
16all the circumstances, a causal connection between the
17conditions under which the work is performed and the
18occupational disease. The disease need not to have been
19foreseen or expected but after its contraction it must appear
20to have had its origin or aggravation in a risk connected with
21the employment and to have flowed from that source as a
22rational consequence.
23    An employee shall be conclusively deemed to have been
24exposed to the hazards of an occupational disease when, for any
25length of time however short, he or she is employed in an
26occupation or process in which the hazard of the disease

 

 

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1exists; provided however, that in a claim of exposure to atomic
2radiation, the fact of such exposure must be verified by the
3records of the central registry of radiation exposure
4maintained by the Department of Public Health or by some other
5recognized governmental agency maintaining records of such
6exposures whenever and to the extent that the records are on
7file with the Department of Public Health or the agency.
8    Any injury to or disease or death of an employee arising
9from the administration of a vaccine, including without
10limitation smallpox vaccine, to prepare for, or as a response
11to, a threatened or potential bioterrorist incident to the
12employee as part of a voluntary inoculation program in
13connection with the person's employment or in connection with
14any governmental program or recommendation for the inoculation
15of workers in the employee's occupation, geographical area, or
16other category that includes the employee is deemed to arise
17out of and in the course of the employment for all purposes
18under this Act. This paragraph added by Public Act 93-829 is
19declarative of existing law and is not a new enactment.
20    The employer liable for the compensation in this Act
21provided shall be the employer in whose employment the employee
22was last exposed to the hazard of the occupational disease
23claimed upon regardless of the length of time of such last
24exposure, except, in cases of silicosis or asbestosis, the only
25employer liable shall be the last employer in whose employment
26the employee was last exposed during a period of 60 days or

 

 

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1more after the effective date of this Act, to the hazard of
2such occupational disease, and, in such cases, an exposure
3during a period of less than 60 days, after the effective date
4of this Act, shall not be deemed a last exposure. If a miner
5who is suffering or suffered from pneumoconiosis was employed
6for 10 years or more in one or more coal mines there shall,
7effective July 1, 1973 be a rebuttable presumption that his or
8her pneumoconiosis arose out of such employment.
9    If a deceased miner was employed for 10 years or more in
10one or more coal mines and died from a respirable disease there
11shall, effective July 1, 1973, be a rebuttable presumption that
12his or her death was due to pneumoconiosis.
13    Any condition or impairment of health of an employee
14employed as a firefighter, emergency medical technician (EMT),
15emergency medical technician-intermediate (EMT-I), advanced
16emergency medical technician (A-EMT), or paramedic which
17results directly or indirectly from any bloodborne pathogen,
18lung or respiratory disease or condition, heart or vascular
19disease or condition, hypertension, tuberculosis, or cancer,
20or Parkinson's disease resulting in any disability (temporary,
21permanent, total, or partial) to the employee shall be
22rebuttably presumed to arise out of and in the course of the
23employee's firefighting, EMT, EMT-I, A-EMT, or paramedic
24employment and, further, shall be rebuttably presumed to be
25causally connected to the hazards or exposures of the
26employment. This presumption shall also apply to any hernia or

 

 

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1hearing loss suffered by an employee employed as a firefighter,
2EMT, EMT-I, A-EMT, or paramedic. However, this presumption
3shall not apply to any employee who has been employed as a
4firefighter, EMT, EMT-I, A-EMT, or paramedic for less than 5
5years at the time he or she files an Application for Adjustment
6of Claim concerning this condition or impairment with the
7Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission. The rebuttable
8presumption established under this subsection, however, does
9not apply to an emergency medical technician (EMT), emergency
10medical technician-intermediate (EMT-I), advanced emergency
11medical technician (A-EMT), or paramedic employed by a private
12employer if the employee spends the preponderance of his or her
13work time for that employer engaged in medical transfers
14between medical care facilities or non-emergency medical
15transfers to or from medical care facilities. The changes made
16to this subsection by this amendatory Act of the 98th General
17Assembly shall be narrowly construed. The Finding and Decision
18of the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission under only the
19rebuttable presumption provision of this paragraph shall not be
20admissible or be deemed res judicata in any disability claim
21under the Illinois Pension Code arising out of the same medical
22condition; however, this sentence makes no change to the law
23set forth in Krohe v. City of Bloomington, 204 Ill.2d 392.
24    The insurance carrier liable shall be the carrier whose
25policy was in effect covering the employer liable on the last
26day of the exposure rendering such employer liable in

 

 

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1accordance with the provisions of this Act.
2    (e) "Disablement" means an impairment or partial
3impairment, temporary or permanent, in the function of the body
4or any of the members of the body, or the event of becoming
5disabled from earning full wages at the work in which the
6employee was engaged when last exposed to the hazards of the
7occupational disease by the employer from whom he or she claims
8compensation, or equal wages in other suitable employment; and
9"disability" means the state of being so incapacitated.
10    (f) No compensation shall be payable for or on account of
11any occupational disease unless disablement, as herein
12defined, occurs within two years after the last day of the last
13exposure to the hazards of the disease, except in cases of
14occupational disease caused by berylliosis or by the inhalation
15of silica dust or asbestos dust and, in such cases, within 3
16years after the last day of the last exposure to the hazards of
17such disease and except in the case of occupational disease
18caused by exposure to radiological materials or equipment, and
19in such case, within 25 years after the last day of last
20exposure to the hazards of such disease.
21(Source: P.A. 98-291, eff. 1-1-14; 98-973, eff. 8-15-14.)
 
22    Section 90. The State Mandates Act is amended by adding
23Section 8.39 as follows:
 
24    (30 ILCS 805/8.39 new)

 

 

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1    Sec. 8.39. Exempt mandate. Notwithstanding Sections 6 and 8
2of this Act, no reimbursement by the State is required for the
3implementation of any mandate created by this amendatory Act of
4the 99th General Assembly.
 
5    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
6becoming law.