Bill expanding mental injury benefits advances in N.Y.
Reprints
The New York Senate on Thursday passed a bill that would make workers compensation mental injury benefits compensable to all workers who suffer from extraordinary stress, six months after Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed a similar measure that passed in 2022.
A.B. 5745, which passed by a 40-18 vote, was sent to the state Assembly.
The bill, which experts say would greatly expand employer liability for mental stress in the workplace, 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” and would prohibit 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 of mental health benefits would go into effect the following year after passage.
