A Senate committee Tuesday approved a bill that would reform a Florida law that allows employers to deny benefits to injured workers who use other people’s Social Security numbers or identification to obtain jobs.
The Senate Banking and Insurance Committee approved S.B. 1568 in a 6-4 vote. The bill, sponsored by Gary Farmer, D-Fort Lauderdale, would eliminate a provision put into the state’s workers compensation law in 2003 that made it felony insurance fraud for people to knowingly present false or misleading information about their identities for obtaining employment.
Current law defines worker as “any person who receives remuneration from any employer … whether lawfully or unlawfully employed, and includes, but is not limited to, aliens and minors.”
Sen. Farmer has said the bill aims to clarify comp law in the state.
If passed, the bill would go into effect Oct. 1, 2018.
Five contractors working to help clean up a fire disaster area in California’s Ventura County were ordered to stop work after investigators alleged multiple workers compensation violations, the county’s district attorney announced.