Law would make claiming Workmens’ Compensation easier
By Amy Batista, Special Writer
MONROE — State Sen. Linda R. Greenstein, D -14, embarked on a first responder tour of fire stations in the 14th Legislative District on Tuesday to discuss legislation she sponsored to ease workman’s compensation claims.
Her first stop on the tour was at the Monroe Township Fire Department, District 3 Station, at 16 Centre Drive.
”This is a great bill for first responders,” said Sen. Greenstein. “I don’t think there is nothing that we can give you that is too much because of what you do and the fact that you put your lives on the line.”
”Certainly it has been a tumultuous task,” said George Borek, First Vice President of the Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey – I.A.F.F-AFL-CIO. “In today’s day and age, when you look at the different events, when we leave the firehouse we don’t know what we are going into and certainly and when you look at the value we provide the community we provide a valuable service 24-7. How do you put a price on the value that each one of you gentlemen when you pull out of the firehouse and go out to a scene?”
Mr. Borek said first responders need to know that, as they protect the people in the community, that they’re going to be protected if something happens to them.
According to Sen. Greenstein, the full Senate passed a bill named after a late Hackensack firefighter called the Thomas P. Canzanella 21st Century First Responder Fire Protection Act.
Mr. Canzanella was a Hackensack firefighter who spent several weeks at Ground Zero after 9-11 and championed medical coverage of firefighter occupational diseases, including cancer, according to the press release.
”If you get injured you go for worker’s compensation,” said Sen. Greenstein.
The bill would create a re-buttable presumption for workers’ compensation coverage – shifting the burden of proof from the employee to the employer – for any death or disability, including post traumatic stress disorder, that arises from the physical or psychological impact of stress or injury experienced by the public safety worker during response to a terrorist attack, epidemic or other catastrophic emergency, according to Sen. Greenstein.
”This bill would shift that burden legally, and essentially, if you worked in the place for five years and you’ve been exposed to various chemicals and other things there are already laws that require lists of those,” said Sen. Greenstein. “If you have been exposed to all of those things, it is extremely likely, it would cause bad health effects and you came down with something serious or you had a serious injury, there is a whole section of the bill that has to do with cancer, but there is a section that (also) has to do with injuries and it is really intended for catastrophic kinds of situations or events.”
According to Sen. Greenstein, the bill would make filing these kinds of claims easier and also make it easier for injured first responders to make a case.
”It would shift the burden so it is much easier for you to get the worker’s compensation because you would be able to show the injury or the cancer was work related,” Sen. Greenstein said.
The bill would apply to both paid and volunteer firefighters, first aid or rescue squad members, police, corrections officers, nurses, medical technicians and other medical personnel.
”The big evidence that we have, I say, on our side, is that many, many states already have (the law),” Senator Greenstein said. “We are actually in a very small minority of states that don’t have what they call presumption about different illnesses when it comes to first responders.”
Sen. Greenstein believes the experience of those states “is a good thing to look at” as they work on this bill.
”They don’t have large numbers of people going for it (this bill),” Sen. Greenstein added. The other side of the issue according to Sen. Greenstein is the money.
”They have this fear,” Sen. Greenstein said that they produced a “really bad one page actuarial report.”
The report said, “even though we can’t predict how much this would cost, it might cost $400,000.”
According to Sen. Greenstein, they asked “where’s the evidence” but they have yet to have anything shown to them.
”The worries towns have is that this is going to cost them a lot of money,” Sen. Greenstein said.”Lots of people are going to make claims that their illnesses are work-related when they are not work-related, but as I said, we don’t have that fear.”
The bill passed through the Senate and will now be going through the Assembly next week, according to Sen. Greenstein.
Senator Greenstein added it was a “party line vote.”
”This legislation that has gone through the Senate now and will hopefully go through the Assembly, which will set that parameter where we know that we can do our job if something happens,” Mr. Borek said. “This will give us the protection that we need. That we know our families are going to be taken care of.”
”Then it will be on the Governor’s desk and we will see what he does,” Sen. Greenstein said.