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silverweb

(16,402 posts)
Tue Oct 6, 2015, 02:12 PM Oct 2015

Help end gender discrimination in California workers' comp.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]Only a score of new signatures from California residents needed to put this petition over the goal number, but we want to go way past that!

Ask yourself if it's just that a damaged/ruined male body is automatically worth more in compensation than a female's, as is the case now. Women are breadwinners, just like men - no longer relegated to the kitchen and bedroom - and as such deserve to be equally compensated for work-related injury.

Please sign and share on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc!

https://www.change.org/p/jerry-brown-end-gender-bias-in-california-s-workers-comp

2 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Help end gender discrimination in California workers' comp. (Original Post) silverweb Oct 2015 OP
The bill in question lumberjack_jeff Oct 2015 #1
Gov. Brown Rejects bill lumberjack_jeff Oct 2015 #2
 

lumberjack_jeff

(33,224 posts)
1. The bill in question
Tue Oct 6, 2015, 04:04 PM
Oct 2015
http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB305

AB 305, Gonzalez. Workers’ compensation: permanent disability apportionment.
Existing workers’ compensation law generally requires employers to secure payment of workers’ compensation, including medical treatment, for injuries incurred by their employees that arise out of, or in the course of, employment. An employer is liable only for the percentage of the permanent disability directly caused by the injury arising out of, and occurring in the course of, employment.
Existing law requires apportionment of permanent disability to be based on causation, and a physician who prepares a report addressing the issue of permanent disability due to a claimed industrial injury is required to address the issue of causation of the permanent disability. The physician is required to make an apportionment determination by finding what approximate percentage of the permanent disability was caused by the direct result of injury arising out of and occurring in the course of employment, and what approximate percentage of the permanent disability was caused by other factors both before and subsequent to the industrial injury, including prior industrial injuries.
This bill would prohibit apportionment of permanent disability, in the case of a physical injury occurring on or after January 1, 2016, from being based on pregnancy or menopause if the condition is contemporaneous with the claimed physical injury. The bill would also prohibit apportionment of permanent disability, in the case of a psychiatric injury occurring on or after January 1, 2016, from being based on psychiatric disability or impairment caused by sexual harassment, pregnancy, or menopause if the condition is contemporaneous with the claimed psychiatric injury. The bill would also provide, notwithstanding any other law, for injuries occurring on or after January 1, 2016, that the impairment ratings for breast cancer and the aftereffects of the disease, known as sequelae, shall in no event be less than comparable ratings for prostate cancer and its sequelae.


In other words, if you hurt your back due to pregnancy while on the job, the pregnancy doesn't count - it's an L&I claim. If calcium loss due to menopause causes an on the job injury, that doesn't count against you either.

If you're suffering from PTSD the fact that your disorder preexisted an on the job incident is relevant to any subsequent disability claim, unless that preexisting mental illness was caused by pregnancy, sexual harassment or menopause.

I'm not seeing "equality" here. What I am seeing is gender bias.
 

lumberjack_jeff

(33,224 posts)
2. Gov. Brown Rejects bill
Tue Oct 13, 2015, 04:11 PM
Oct 2015
http://www.wci360.com/news/article/gov.-brown-rejects-gender-bias-workers-compensation-bill

Under current law, employees filing a workers’ compensation claim must be examined by a physician who is required by current law to state the disability and its cause. The doctor's report must apportion what approximate percentage of the disability was caused by the work activity versus other factors, which have included many of the “pre-existing conditions” that AB 305 would eliminate from consideration when determining an injured female employee’s claim: pregnancy and menopause. AB 305 also prevents psychiatric disability or impairment caused by any of those conditions, or by contemporaneous instances of sexual harassment from being considered when apportioning a work injury. Additionally, AB 305 requires that workplace injuries that cause breast cancer do not receive a lower workers’ compensation rating than the rating for prostate cancer.

In his message returning the bill to the Assembly without his signature, Brown wrote: “The workers’ compensation system must be free of gender-bias. No group should receive less in benefits because of an immutable characteristic. However, this bill is based on a misunderstanding of the American Medical Association’s evidence-based standard, which is the foundation of the permanent disability ratings, and replaces it with an ill-defined and unscientific standard.”
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