Bill Text: CA AB1749 | 2017-2018 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Workers’ compensation: off-duty peace officer.

Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill

Status: (Passed) 2018-09-23 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 707, Statutes of 2018. [AB1749 Detail]

Download: California-2017-AB1749-Introduced.html

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CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2017–2018 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 1749

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Introduced by Assembly Member Daly
(Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Quirk-Silva)
(Principal coauthor: Senator Bates)
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Grayson, Mayes, and Rodriguez)
(Coauthor: Senator Wilk)

January 03, 2018

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An act to amend Section 3600.2 of the Labor Code, relating to workers’ compensation.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 1749, as introduced, Daly. Workers’ compensation: off-duty peace officer.

Existing law establishes a workers’ compensation system, administered by the Administrative Director of the Division of Workers’ Compensation, to compensate an employee for injuries sustained in the course of his or her employment. Existing law provides that whenever any peace officer, as defined, is injured, dies, or is disabled from performing his duties as a peace officer by reason of engaging in the apprehension or attempted apprehension of law violators or suspected law violators, or protection or preservation of life or property, or the preservation of the peace anywhere in this state, including the local jurisdiction in which he is employed, but is not at the time acting under the immediate direction of his employer, he or his dependents, as the case may be, shall be accorded by his employer all of the same benefits, including the benefits of this division, which he or they would have received had that peace officer been acting under the immediate direction of his employer. Existing law provides that any injury, disability, or death incurred under the circumstances described in this section shall be deemed to have arisen out of and been sustained in the course of employment for purposes of workers’ compensation and all other benefits.

This bill would provide that whenever any peace officer is injured, dies, or is disabled from performing his duties as a peace officer by reason of engaging in the apprehension or attempted apprehension of law violators or suspected law violators within or out of the state, or protection or preservation of life or property within or out of the state, or the preservation of the peace anywhere in this state, but is not at the time acting under the immediate direction of his employer, he or his dependents shall be accorded by his employer all of the same benefits the peace officer or his dependants would have received had that peace officer been acting under the immediate direction of his employer. The bill would provide that this provision is declaratory of existing law.

Digest Key

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: NO   Local Program: NO  

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Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

 Section 3600.2 of the Labor Code is amended to read:

3600.2.

 (a) Whenever any peace officer, as defined in Section 50920 of the Government Code, is injured, dies, or is disabled from performing his duties as a peace officer by reason of engaging in the apprehension or attempted apprehension of law violators or suspected law violators within or out of the state, or protection or preservation of life or property within or out of the state, or the preservation of the peace anywhere in this state, including the local jurisdiction in which he is employed, but is not at the time acting under the immediate direction of his employer, he or his dependents, as the case may be, shall be accorded by his employer all of the same benefits, including the benefits of this division, which he or they would have received had that peace officer been acting under the immediate direction of his employer. Any injury, disability, or death incurred under the circumstances described in this section shall be deemed to have arisen out of and been sustained in the course of employment for purposes of workers’ compensation and all other benefits.

(b) Nothing in this section shall be deemed to:

(1) Require the extension of any benefits to a peace officer who at the time of his injury, death, or disability is acting for compensation from one other than the city, county, city and county, judicial district, or town of his primary employment.

(2) Require the extension of any benefits to a peace officer employed by a city, county, city and county, judicial district, or town which by charter, ordinance, or departmental regulation, whether now in force or hereafter enacted or promulgated, expressly prohibits the activity giving rise to the injury, disability, or death.

(3) Enlarge or extend the authority of any peace officer to make an arrest; provided, however, that illegality of the arrest shall not affect the extension of benefits by reason of this act if the peace officer reasonably believed that the arrest was not illegal.

SEC. 2.

 The amendments to Section 3600.2 of the Labor Code made by this act do not constitute a change in, but are declaratory of, existing law.