Over the weekend, Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill by Senator Toni G Atkins that would make a workers compensation bill passed in 2014 for firefighters and peace officers permanent.
The original bill, AB 1035 which was passed in 2014, was set to expire Jan 1, 2019.
Here is more on the bill
SB 1086 – Workers’ compensation: firefighters and peace officers: Thanks to AB 1035, passed in 2014, if a public-safety officer dies from a job-related illness more than 240 weeks after being diagnosed, his or her family can still qualify for state-provided survivor death benefits.
The bill stretched that statute of limitations to 420 weeks. However, AB 1035 is scheduled to sunset in 2019. SB 1086 removes the sunset and makes the 420-week limit permanent. A police officer or firefighter’s family should not have to suffer because she or he lived too long.
