On Thursday, the Assembly Labor Committee favorably reported A-161, which revises workers’ compensation coverage for certain injuries to volunteer and professional public safety and law enforcement personnel.
This bill expands the individuals who are covered by rebuttable presumption of cardiovascular or cerebrovascular injury or death while responding to an emergency to include any recognized emergency management member doing volunteer duty. It also removes the requirement that the individual must be responding to orders under competent authority to recover and provides that individuals are covered by the presumption when remediating from an emergency.
New Jersey now has the highest workers’ compensation premium rates in the country.
While a laudable goal, the League opposes this legislation because the increased costs will further challenge municipalities compliance with the annual 2% levy cap.
Please reach out to your Assembly representatives and urge them to vote No on A-161.
Contact: Paul Penna, Senior Legislative Analyst, ppenna@njlm.org, 609-695-3481, x110.