ASSEMBLY, No. 2642

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

INTRODUCED JANUARY 23, 1997

 

 

By Assemblymen ROMANO and GARCIA

 

 

An Act exempting certain emergency volunteers from the 7-day waiting period for workers' compensation and amending R.S.34:15-14 and R.S.34:15-75.

 

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

    1. R.S.34:15-14 is amended to read as follows:

    34:15-14. [No] Except as provided pursuant to R.S.34:15-75, no compensation other than medical aid shall accrue and be payable until the employee has been disabled 7 days, whether the days of disability immediately follow the accident, or whether they be consecutive or not. These days shall be termed the waiting period. The day that the employee is unable to continue at work by reason of his accident, whether it be the day of the accident or later, shall count as one whole day of the waiting period. Should the total period of disability extend beyond 7 days, additional compensation shall at once become payable covering the above prescribed waiting period.

(cf: P.L.1966, c.126, s.3)

 

    2. R.S.34:15-75 is amended to read as follows:

    34:15-75. Compensation for injury and death, either or both, of any volunteer fireman, county fire marshal, assistant county fire marshal, volunteer first aid or rescue squad worker, volunteer driver of any municipally-owned or operated ambulance, forest fire warden or forest fire fighter employed by the State of New Jersey, member of a board of education, special reserve or auxiliary policeman doing volunteer public police duty under the control or supervision of any commission, council or any other governing body of any municipality, or emergency management volunteer doing emergency management service, shall [be] :

    a. Be based upon a weekly salary or compensation conclusively presumed to be received by such person in an amount sufficient to entitle him, or, in the event of his death, his dependents, to receive the maximum compensation by this chapter authorized; and

    b. Not be subject to the seven day waiting period provided in to R.S.34:15-14.

(cf: P.L.1995, c.383, s.3)

 

    3. This act shall take effect immediately.

 

 

STATEMENT

 

    This bill exempts certain volunteer firefighters, first aid or rescue squad workers, and other specified emergency volunteers from the seven-day waiting period for workers' compensation imposed on other injured workers by R.S.34:15-14. Under the current law, no worker, including an emergency volunteer, may receive compensation for an injury unless the employee is disabled for more than seven days, and compensation becomes payable for the first seven days only if the period of disability extends beyond seven days. The bill would permit the payment of compensation for injuries for emergency volunteers even if the period of disability is seven days or less.

 

 

                             

 

Exempts emergency volunteers from the 7-day waiting period for workers' compensation.