|
|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
|
CONTACT: Michael
J. Herzing |
State Rep. James E.
Casorio, Jr. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
House committee OKs Casorio workers’ comp bill
HARRISBURG, June 19 – The House Labor Relations Committee today approved legislation that would classify hepatitis C as an occupational disease for a number of jobs involved with law enforcement in the state.
Casorio said the bills, one of which he introduced, would give those infected with hepatitis C the legal presumption that they contracted the disease on the job, making workers' compensation coverage automatic.
Casorio’s bill (H.B. 1025) would make hepatitis C an occupational disease for state Fish and Boat and Game Commission officers, officers of the Department of Natural Resources, and port authority officers in Pennsylvania.
“Because all of these employees are involved in some capacity in law enforcement, and at times are called on to deal with medical emergencies, they are at increased risk of contracting hepatitis C from other people who may be infected,” Casorio said. “Their jobs necessitate risking their own health and safety, so when they contract a potentially life-threatening disease while performing their job, they should not have to go through a protracted legal process to receive the workers’ compensation benefits they deserve.”
Hepatitis C is a liver disease that is transmitted through contact with infected blood. Firefighters, police officers, emergency responders and corrections employees constantly face the possibility of exposure to hepatitis C. A law passed in 2001 made hepatitis C an occupational disease for all of these workers; previously many of them had to spend years proving they contracted hepatitis C in the performance of their duties before they were able to collect workers’ compensation.
Casorio said his bill and similar bills that were approved by the Labor Relations Committee today would add other employees who are at increased risk of exposure to the disease to that law.
"The aim is to make sure that workers who contract this disease on the job don’t have to fight both the disease and the workers’ compensation bureaucracy when that happens,” Casorio said. “We want to make sure they and their families are provided for.”
###mjh/2007/bt
l:\print\releases\hepCcomm.056