New York considers bill to expand mental injury benefits to all workers

Workers compensation mental injury benefits would be expanded to all New York workers who suffer from extraordinary stress, under a bill introduced Thursday.  

A.B. 5745, which was referred to the labor committee, would strike out language in state law that restricts work-related stress benefits to certain professions — police officers or firefighters, emergency medical technicians, paramedics, dispatchers and other workers certified to provide medical care in emergencies. The measure would extend comp benefits to all workers in the state “premised upon extraordinary work-related stress at work.”  

The bill also prohibits the state’s Workers Compensation Board from disallowing the claim if facts reveal that the stressor was that which normally occurs at work.

The expansion would go into effect the following year after passage.