Increase workers’ compensation benefits for Permanent Disability?

Today, the California Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee approved Senate Bill 773 (Florez), a bill to increase workers’ compensation benefits for Permanent Disability (PD). The employer community opposes this bill because it significantly – and arbitrarily – increases costs at the worst possible time for California businesses and rolls back a major element of the 2004 legislative reforms.  

As outlined in this article from the Sacramento Business Journal, recent court rulings and pending regulations also propose to increase PD benefits this year. SB 773 amounts to what could be a “triple whammy” for employers that will increase the PD costs finally reined in by the reforms. 

You can join the employer opposition effort by signing on to this letter, which will be sent to the members of the California State Senate. If you would like your organization or business to be included on this opposition letter, please send us an email and we will ensure your name is included.   

As the letter outlines, the proponents of the legislation have provided no data to support the various levels of increases proposed in the bill, which could raise PD costs for employers by as much as 85% according to testimony provided at the hearing. Similar such legislation to arbitrarily increase PD benefits has been vetoed in each of the last three years by Governor Schwarzenegger, thanks in part to your letters, emails and phone calls.