A new amendment to Senate Bill 1159 by Sen. Jerry Hill of San Mateo would extend the presumption that COVID-19 is compensable, through July 1, 2024, for certain workers, including those on the front line of the pandemic.
SB 1159 codifies Governor Newsom’s May Executive Order which created the presumption, as SRTK reported previously. Under this amendment to the proposed legislation, the presumption of compensability would extend to specified frontline workers [public safety, hospital/medical workers] and anyone working at a place with 100+ employees where at least 5% of their coworkers also tested positive, or in any instance where at least 5 employees in the company have tested positive to July 1, 2024. A specific place of employment refers to either a single location or a group of contiguous locations. For employees with no fixed specific place of employment, the specific place of employment is the location to which they are primarily assigned, from which their work is assigned, or to which they report.
The next hearing on this bill is August 11, 2020. SRTK will continue to monitor this development and provide updates as available. Please contact us with any questions about what this may mean for you.