Law enforcement officers put their lives on the line every day in California, but there are more than violent injuries and confrontations that they often worry about. In the past, certain injuries were overlooked by workers’ compensation claims, but according to KUSI News, a Democratic representative from San Diego recently announced a bill to extend officer’s workers’ compensation availability.
The representative believes that some officers are in danger of losing employment or healthcare when they are forced to use personal leave in agencies where certain illnesses and injuries must be classified by whether they are workplace injuries. If they are not, officers are required to use their own time as they recover from injuries. Because of this, some officers avoid work with agencies that require them to use their own time to recover from a workplace injury.
Some believe that this limits the pool of potential hires for certain agencies and may eventually pose a threat to public safety as officers prefer to work for an agency with better benefits. The bill is intended to allow officers to classify all on the job injuries as eligible for workers’ compensation claims.
The bill has the support of the Peace Officer Research Association of California and would require that all the state’s law enforcement agencies have expanded workers’ compensation benefits. On the job injuries are serious issues for the state’s law enforcement officers, and if the new bill passes, it may make it easier for them to access benefits including healthcare and leave time when they are injured.