093_SB1534

 
                                     LRB093 10970 WGH 11568 b

 1        AN ACT concerning workplace health.

 2        Be it enacted by the People of  the  State  of  Illinois,
 3    represented in the General Assembly:

 4        Section  5.   The Workers' Compensation Act is amended by
 5    changing Section 11 as follows:

 6        (820 ILCS 305/11) (from Ch. 48, par. 138.11)
 7        Sec. 11.  The compensation herein provided, together with
 8    the provisions of this Act,  shall  be  the  measure  of  the
 9    responsibility   of  any  employer  engaged  in  any  of  the
10    enterprises or businesses enumerated in  Section  3  of  this
11    Act,  or  of  any  employer  who  is  not engaged in any such
12    enterprises or businesses, but who has elected to provide and
13    pay compensation for accidental  injuries  sustained  by  any
14    employee  arising  out of and in the course of the employment
15    according to the provisions of this Act, and  whose  election
16    to  continue  under  this  Act, has not been nullified by any
17    action of his employees as provided for in this Act.
18        Accidental  injuries  incurred  while  participating   in
19    voluntary  recreational programs including but not limited to
20    athletic events, parties and picnics do not arise out of  and
21    in the course of the employment even though the employer pays
22    some  or  all  of the cost thereof.  This exclusion shall not
23    apply in the event that the injured employee was  ordered  or
24    assigned by his employer to participate in the program.
25        Accidental  injuries  incurred  while  participating as a
26    patient in a drug or alcohol rehabilitation  program  do  not
27    arise  out of and in the course of employment even though the
28    employer pays some or all of the costs thereof.
29        Any injury to or death of any person who has  voluntarily
30    received  a smallpox vaccination and who either is designated
31    as a "first responder" for the purpose of emergency  response
 
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 1    in  the event of an attack using weapons of mass destruction,
 2    or is a member of  an  Illinois  Medical  Emergency  Response
 3    Team,  or  is a member of a State Weapons of Mass Destruction
 4    Team is  deemed  to  arise  out  of  and  in  the  course  of
 5    employment for all purposes under this Act.
 6    (Source: P.A. 81-1482.)

 7        Section  10.   The  Workers' Occupational Diseases Act is
 8    amended by changing Section 1 as follows:

 9        (820 ILCS 310/1) (from Ch. 48, par. 172.36)
10        Sec. 1.  This Act shall be known and may be cited as  the
11    "Workers' Occupational Diseases Act".
12        (a)  The  term  "employer"  as  used in this Act shall be
13    construed to be:
14        1.  The State and  each  county,  city,  town,  township,
15    incorporated  village,  school  district,  body  politic,  or
16    municipal corporation therein.
17        2.   Every  person,  firm, public or private corporation,
18    including hospitals, public service, eleemosynary,  religious
19    or  charitable  corporations  or  associations,  who  has any
20    person in service or under any contract for hire, express  or
21    implied, oral or written.
22        3.   Where an employer operating under and subject to the
23    provisions of this Act loans  an  employee  to  another  such
24    employer  and  such  loaned  employee  sustains a compensable
25    occupational disease in  the  employment  of  such  borrowing
26    employer  and  where such borrowing employer does not provide
27    or pay the benefits  or  payments  due  such  employee,  such
28    loaning  employer  shall  be  liable  to  provide  or pay all
29    benefits or payments due such employee under this Act and  as
30    to  such employee the liability of such loaning and borrowing
31    employers shall be joint  and  several,  provided  that  such
32    loaning  employer  shall  in  the absence of agreement to the
 
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 1    contrary be entitled to receive from such borrowing  employer
 2    full  reimbursement for all sums paid or incurred pursuant to
 3    this paragraph together with reasonable attorneys'  fees  and
 4    expenses  in any hearings before the Industrial Commission or
 5    in any  action  to  secure  such  reimbursement.   Where  any
 6    benefit  is  provided  or  paid by such loaning employer, the
 7    employee  shall  have  the  duty  of   rendering   reasonable
 8    co-operation  in  any  hearings, trials or proceedings in the
 9    case, including such proceedings for reimbursement.
10        Where an employee files an Application for Adjustment  of
11    Claim with the Industrial Commission alleging that his or her
12    claim   is   covered  by  the  provisions  of  the  preceding
13    paragraph, and joining both the alleged loaning and borrowing
14    employers, they and each of them, upon written demand by  the
15    employee  and  within  7  days  after receipt of such demand,
16    shall have the duty of filing with the Industrial  Commission
17    a  written  admission  or  denial  of the allegation that the
18    claim is covered by the provisions of the preceding paragraph
19    and in default of such  filing  or  if  any  such  denial  be
20    ultimately  determined  not  to  have been bona fide then the
21    provisions of Paragraph K of Section 19  of  this  Act  shall
22    apply.
23        An employer whose business or enterprise or a substantial
24    part  thereof  consists  of  hiring,  procuring or furnishing
25    employees to or  for  other  employers  operating  under  and
26    subject  to the provisions of this Act for the performance of
27    the work of such other employers and who pays such  employees
28    their  salary or wage notwithstanding that they are doing the
29    work of such  other  employers  shall  be  deemed  a  loaning
30    employer within the meaning and provisions of this Section.
31        (b)  The  term  "employee"  as used in this Act, shall be
32    construed to mean:
33        1.  Every person in the service  of  the  State,  county,
34    city,   town,   township,   incorporated  village  or  school
 
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 1    district, body  politic  or  municipal  corporation  therein,
 2    whether by election, appointment or contract of hire, express
 3    or  implied,  oral  or written, including any official of the
 4    State, or of any county, city, town,  township,  incorporated
 5    village,   school   district,   body   politic  or  municipal
 6    corporation therein and except any duly appointed  member  of
 7    the  fire  department  in  any  city whose population exceeds
 8    500,000 according to the last Federal or  State  census,  and
 9    except  any member of a fire insurance patrol maintained by a
10    board of underwriters  in  this  State.  One  employed  by  a
11    contractor  who  has  contracted with the State, or a county,
12    city, town, township, incorporated village, school  district,
13    body  politic  or  municipal corporation therein, through its
14    representatives, shall not be considered as  an  employee  of
15    the   State,   county,  city,  town,  township,  incorporated
16    village,  school  district,   body   politic   or   municipal
17    corporation which made the contract.
18        2.  Every  person  in  the  service  of another under any
19    contract of hire, express or implied, oral  or  written,  who
20    contracts  an occupational disease while working in the State
21    of Illinois, or who contracts an occupational  disease  while
22    working  outside  of  the  State  of  Illinois  but where the
23    contract of hire is made within the State  of  Illinois,  and
24    any  person  whose employment is principally localized within
25    the State of Illinois, regardless  of  the  place  where  the
26    disease  was  contracted  or place where the contract of hire
27    was made, including aliens, and minors who, for  the  purpose
28    of this Act, except Section 3 hereof, shall be considered the
29    same  and  have  the same power to contract, receive payments
30    and give quittances therefor, as adult employees. An employee
31    or his or her dependents under this  Act  who  shall  have  a
32    cause  of  action  by  reason  of  an  occupational  disease,
33    disablement  or death arising out of and in the course of his
34    or her employment may elect or pursue his or  her  remedy  in
 
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 1    the  State  where the disease was contracted, or in the State
 2    where the contract of hire is made, or in the State where the
 3    employment is principally localized.
 4        (c)  "Commission" means the Industrial Commission created
 5    by the Workers' Compensation Act, approved July 9,  1951,  as
 6    amended.
 7        (d)  In  this Act the term "Occupational Disease" means a
 8    disease arising out of and in the course of the employment or
 9    which has become  aggravated  and  rendered  disabling  as  a
10    result  of  the exposure of the employment.  Such aggravation
11    shall arise out of a risk peculiar to  or  increased  by  the
12    employment and not common to the general public.
13        A  disease shall be deemed to arise out of the employment
14    if there is apparent to the rational mind, upon consideration
15    of all the circumstances, a  causal  connection  between  the
16    conditions   under  which  the  work  is  performed  and  the
17    occupational disease. The  disease  need  not  to  have  been
18    foreseen or expected but after its contraction it must appear
19    to  have  had  its  origin or aggravation in a risk connected
20    with the employment and to have flowed from that source as  a
21    rational consequence.
22        An  employee  shall  be  conclusively deemed to have been
23    exposed to the hazards of an occupational disease  when,  for
24    any length of time however short, he or she is employed in an
25    occupation  or  process  in  which  the hazard of the disease
26    exists; provided however, that in  a  claim  of  exposure  to
27    atomic  radiation, the fact of such exposure must be verified
28    by the records of the central registry of radiation  exposure
29    maintained  by  the  Department  of  Public Health or by some
30    other recognized governmental agency maintaining  records  of
31    such  exposures  whenever  and to the extent that the records
32    are on file with the  Department  of  Public  Health  or  the
33    agency.
34        Any  disease  or  death of any person who has voluntarily
 
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 1    received a smallpox vaccination and who either is  designated
 2    as  a "first responder" for the purpose of emergency response
 3    in the event of an attack using weapons of mass  destruction,
 4    or  is  a  member  of  an Illinois Medical Emergency Response
 5    Team, or is a member of a State Weapons of  Mass  Destruction
 6    Team  is  deemed  to  arise  out  of  and  in  the  course of
 7    employment for all purposes under this Act.
 8        The employer liable for  the  compensation  in  this  Act
 9    provided  shall  be  the  employer  in  whose  employment the
10    employee was last exposed to the hazard of  the  occupational
11    disease claimed upon regardless of the length of time of such
12    last  exposure,  except, in cases of silicosis or asbestosis,
13    the only employer liable shall be the last employer in  whose
14    employment  the  employee was last exposed during a period of
15    60 days or more after the effective date of this Act, to  the
16    hazard  of  such occupational disease, and, in such cases, an
17    exposure during a period of less  than  60  days,  after  the
18    effective  date  of  this  Act,  shall  not  be deemed a last
19    exposure.  If a miner  who  is  suffering  or  suffered  from
20    pneumoconiosis  was  employed  for 10 years or more in one or
21    more coal mines there shall, effective  July  1,  1973  be  a
22    rebuttable  presumption  that his or her pneumoconiosis arose
23    out of such employment.
24        If a deceased miner was employed for 10 years or more  in
25    one  or  more  coal  mines and died from a respirable disease
26    there  shall,  effective  July  1,  1973,  be  a   rebuttable
27    presumption that his or her death was due to pneumoconiosis.
28        The  insurance  carrier liable shall be the carrier whose
29    policy was in effect covering the employer liable on the last
30    day  of  the  exposure  rendering  such  employer  liable  in
31    accordance with the provisions of this Act.
32        (e)  "Disablement"  means  an   impairment   or   partial
33    impairment,  temporary  or  permanent, in the function of the
34    body or any of the members of  the  body,  or  the  event  of
 
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 1    becoming  disabled  from  earning  full  wages at the work in
 2    which the employee was  engaged  when  last  exposed  to  the
 3    hazards of the occupational disease by the employer from whom
 4    he  or  she  claims  compensation,  or  equal  wages in other
 5    suitable employment; and  "disability"  means  the  state  of
 6    being so incapacitated.
 7        (f)  No  compensation  shall be payable for or on account
 8    of any occupational disease  unless  disablement,  as  herein
 9    defined,  occurs  within  two years after the last day of the
10    last exposure to the hazards of the disease, except in  cases
11    of  occupational  disease  caused  by  berylliosis  or by the
12    inhalation of silica dust  or  asbestos  dust  and,  in  such
13    cases, within 3 years after the last day of the last exposure
14    to  the  hazards  of  such  disease and except in the case of
15    occupational  disease  caused  by  exposure  to  radiological
16    materials or equipment, and in such  case,  within  25  years
17    after  the  last  day of last exposure to the hazards of such
18    disease.
19    (Source: P.A. 81-992.)

20        Section 99.  Effective date.  This Act takes effect  upon
21    becoming law.