CPF Wins Injured FFs the Right to Choose Work Comp Doctor
This past Sunday marked Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s deadline for acting on bills sent to him in the final days of the legislative session. Among the bills approved was legislation that, in effect, reforms the governor’s own Workers Compensation reform.
Capping a five-year effort, California Professional Firefighters won for firefighters and many other injured workers the right to see their own doctor when injured on the job.
Senate Bill 186, by Senator Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord), repeals the “Sunset” provision that previously allowed this vital physician choice only until December of 2009. CPF has been the driving force behind this effort, which rolls back one of the most onerous provisions of Governor Schwarzenegger’s 2004 Workers Compensation “reform”.
“Under the old Workers’ Comp law, firefighters could soon have been forced to see a doctor chosen not by them, but by their city manager,” said CPF President Lou Paulson. “We’re gratified that the governor has seen the importance of insuring that working people can choose their own doctor on and off the job.”
The CPF co-sponsored this bill with the California Labor Federation last year (SB 1338 which was vetoed by the Governor) and sponsored SB 186 this year. The CPF’s active role in the passage of this measure generated substantial Republican support in the Senate and Assembly and active communications with the Governor’s office facilitated the Governor’s signature.
SB 186 was the most significant of a number of firefighter-friendly measures signed this year. Among the other victories was legislation cracking down on insurance-company privateers. CPF also won critical legislation extending the protection of 4850 time to all public safety personnel.
Following is a run-down of a handful of bills sponsored or supported by the CPF that were approved earlier this year by the Legislature and signed into law by the Governor over the weekend:
AB 671 - Assemblymember Paul Krekorian (D-Burbank): Public Safety Golden Shield Award. Annually requires the Governor to award and present, in the name of the State of California, a Golden Shield Award to the next of kin or immediate family members of every public safety officer, including a firefighter, who, while serving under competent authority in any capacity, was killed in the line of duty in that year.
AB 1214– Pedro Nava (D-Santa Barbara): Private fire personnel. Requires personnel retained by an insurance company to protect structures threatened by fire to check in with, and follow the instructions of, the incident commander in charge of fighting the fire. We cosponsored this bill in response to concerns over private insurance companies were trying to gain credible standing in fire operations at the fire scene. CPF co-sponsored AB 1214 with CDF Firefighters Local 2881.
AB 1227- Mike Feuer (D – Beverly Hills): 4850 Time. Extends 4850 time to public safety personnel employed by agencies that are not currently under the LACERS, CalPERS or ’37 Act umbrella. The CPF co-sponsored this bill with PORAC last year (AB 419 which was vetoed by the Governor) and co-sponsored AB 1227 this year. The Governor approved the measure based on the same premise that allowed us to obtain his signature on the Firefighters Bill of Rights in 2007 – fairness and equity for all public safety officers.
AB 1440– Sandre Swanson (D-Oakland): Elections: provisional ballots. Requires elections officials in the counties included in a gubernatorial executive order that declares an emergency to, upon demand, issue specified emergency workers, including firefighters, or other individuals officially engaged in responding to the declared emergency, a provisional ballot permitting that worker to vote. Elections officials are then required to transmit the ballots cast to the elections official in the county where the voter is registered to vote.
SB 52– Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana): Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor. Adds the California Professional Firefighters to the California Public Safety Medal of Valor Review Board. Also allows the Board to meet more than once a year and recommend more than five candidates for the Medal per year. This bill further provides the Governor the ability to award a Medal of Valor to more than one public safety officer a year.
SB 186- Mark DeSaulnier (D -Concord): Predesignation Sunset Repeal. Maintains the right of some injured workers, including firefighters, to see their own doctors if they get injured on the job by eliminating the workers’ compensation predesignation sunset date of December 2009. (See above for details).
SB 538 (Senate Public Employment and Retirement Committee): Los Angeles County Mandatory Retirement. Makes a technical clarifying change in the ’37 Act law permitting the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (LACERA) to receive the necessary physical certification of a safety member, upon returning from a disability leave, before making a determination as to whether that member is subject to mandatory retirement.
And, not needing the Governor’s signature to take effect -- AJR 10- Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch): Social Security Fairness Act. Encourages Congress and the President to enact the Social Security Fairness Act of 2009 -- federal legislation that eliminates two provisions known as the WEP and the GPO, which may unfairly prevent public employees from receiving a portion of earned social security benefits. AJR 10 was approved by the Legislature on September 8, 2009 and chaptered into law on September 16, 2009 (Res. Chapter No. 103, Statutes of 2009). Because this measure was a resolution, it did not require the Governor’s signature to take effect.
Overall, Governor Schwarzenegger was very stingy with his signature pen, setting a recent-history record for the fewest bills signed in a single year. But then, the Legislature didn’t send him as many either. This year, the governor signed 632 of the 872 measures that reached his desk in this year’s regular session. He vetoed 240 bills, down from last year’s record of 414 vetoes. Despite the drop in vetoes, the numbers still show Schwarzenegger to be “the terminator” – he has vetoed nearly twice as many bills in six years (1,673) as Reagan did in eight years (843).
