July 13, 2022
The Honorable Chris Holden
Chair, Assembly Committee on Appropriations
1021 O Street, Suite 8220
Sacramento, CA 95814
RE: SB 1127 (Atkins) Workers’ Compensation: Liability Presumptions. Notice of OPPOSE (As amended 6/13/2022) Dear Assembly Member Holden,
The City of San Marcos must respectfully oppose SB 1127, which would fundamentally alter longstanding rules and timeframes for determining eligibility for workers’ compensation claims and would dramatically increase systemic friction and litigation, ultimately leading to increased cost to cities.
SB 1127 reduces the timeline for employers to make a decision about covering a claimed injury, but it does not harmonize any of the other statutes and regulations that prevent employers from complying with the new abbreviated timeline. SB 1127 has three main provisions, all of which are problematic:
Reduces the timeframe allotted to employers to investigate rebuttable presumption claims: SB 1127 proposes to shorten the time provided for employers to investigate claims from 90 to 75 days. The bill does not, however, make a single change to the statutory and regulatory provisions that cause investigations to take more than 90 days.
Imposes massive new and retroactive penalties on employers: SB 1127 proposes new and unprecedented penalties all claims covered by presumption statutes, including the COVID-19 presumption that applies to every employer in the state. The penalty would apply in situations where “liability has been unreasonably rejected for claims of injury” and would be five times the amount of benefits unreasonably delayed, up to $50,000.
More than doubles duration of temporary disability for cancer presumption claims: SB 1127 would extend the duration of temporary disability benefits from 104 to 240 weeks for claims covered by cancer presumption statutes. Covered employees currently have full and tax-free wage replacement benefits for one full year, and have access to disability retirement benefits that can, in some cases, be received at the same time as temporary disability benefits. As drafted, that employee could use all five years of the disability during the initial treatment period and would then still not have benefits available if there is a recurrence.
SB 1127 substantially cuts the amount of time available to cities to review whether claimed workplace injuries are, in fact, related to work. This is fundamentally unfair to cities, who deserve a fair opportunity to complete an investigation and make a thoughtful determination about the validity of a claimed injury. For public agencies, the changes would exacerbate an already costly situation.
For these reasons, the City of San Marcos opposes SB 1127.
Sincerely,
Rebecca D. Jones
Mayor
cc: Catherine Hill, League of California Cities – San Diego and Imperial Counties League of California Cities (Via email: [email protected]) PAGE \* MERGEFORMAT 2
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