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Workers comp bill safeguarding pregnant women put on hold

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Workers comp bill safeguarding pregnant women put on hold

Lawmakers in California on Monday placed in the suspension file a bill that aims to protect mothers and pregnant women from their gender-specific status affecting a disability claim that arises out of a workplace injury. 

Assembly Bill 570, introduced by Assembly Member Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-Chula Vista) in February, tackles the issues of causation and apportionment. 

Existing law requires apportionment of permanent disability to be based on causation, and in the event of a workplace injury a physician must determine the approximate percentage of the permanent disability that was caused as a direct result of a workplace injury and the approximate percentage of the permanent disability that was caused by other factors both before and subsequent to the industrial injury, including prior industrial injuries. 

The bill would prohibit apportionment in the case of a physical injury occurring on or after Jan. 1, 2018, from being based on pregnancy, childbirth or other medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth.

Proponents have said that pregnancy and motherhood had been factored into apportionment, creating unfair determinations regarding permanent disability. 

The future of the bill is uncertain, per the legislative digest.

 

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