Workers’ Compensation Benefits for Coronavirus

The State of California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order to extend the Workers’ Compensation benefits to all essential employees infected with COVID-19.

The new executive order: There is a rebuttable presumption that anyone who contracts the novel coronavirus while working outside the home as an essential employee will be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits. In other words, the state will assume that employees got infected on the job unless the employer shows otherwise.

The governor intends in the order to help and include those workers on the front lines such as health care and public safety workers, and aims to provide some peace of mind and to calm and relieve the health care workers who are otherwise wondering and stressed how to protect their health and family in case they are infected with the disease.

The presumption will be applied retroactively to essential employees who have been infected anytime beginning March 19, 2020, the date of Governor Newsom’s first shelter-in-place order, and expire 60 days from the signing of the executive order on May 6.
Remember this is a rebuttable presumption and employers can rebut the claims, but only under “strict” criteria.
The governor also acknowledged the ongoing burden coronavirus has placed on California’s Latinos and black communities, who have been disproportionately hit with the virus and who are also more likely to work as essential employees. According to the Governor the number of infected cases is higher among our black and brown communities due to the type of work they do, which does not allow them to telework, or work from home, basically leaving them working on the front lines.