SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 1885

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED: MAY 8, 1997

      The Senate Education Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 1885.

      The purpose of this bill is to simplify the procedure for a school employee who is injured in an accident arising out of and in the course of employment to receive the full salary for the calendar year period provided for by statute and to correct the employee's sick leave account when sick leave is incorrectly charged to the employee's annual or accumulated sick leave. Under present practice, a party seeking sick leave benefits must file a petition with the Commissioner of Education within the 90-day limitation required by regulation and then file a claim with the Division of Workers' Compensation. The petition may then be held in abeyance while the employee's entitlement to temporary disability is determined by the Division of Workers' Compensation. Pursuant to decisions of the Commissioner of Education and the State Board of Education, if the Division of Workers' Compensation rules in the employee's favor, the employee as a matter of law is entitled to receive the full salary for up to one calendar year and restoration of annual and accumulated sick leave. This bill would simplify and economize the procedure and spare both parties the unnecessary and wasteful expense of potentially having to resort or return to the commissioner to litigate the employee's entitlement, since the entitlement would be definitively established by the decision, award, determination and rule for judgment or the order approving settlement.