The Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission (IWCC) tried to make it easier for a worker to recover for COVID-19 by enacting a Rule presuming that the disease was caused at work. The Courts prohibited the propagation of the Rule, and the IWCC repealed it, but the issue did not die. Rather, its consideration shifted to the Illinois General Assembly where a bipartisan panel of legislators, assisted by representatives of business and labor, have been working hard to draft an Agreed Bill, that is, one which both sides can abide.
Word is that such a measure is close to fruition. If the sides stay with the current bargain, it will be presumed by the IWCC that First Responders, healthcare workers and employees of essential business (like pharmacy and food store personnel and as otherwise defined under Governors Order of 3/20/20) diagnosed with COVID-19 were infected on their jobs.
That presumption can be overcome where the employer can prove that the employee had not been in the work environment for at least 14 consecutive days before becoming unable to work. It will also fail if there is evidence that, for 14 consecutive days before the worker was off, her employer, to the best of its ability, provided a safe work place by following current guidance of the Illinois Department of Public Health
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by affording Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). PPE includes many items from face coverings and gloves to full body suits. Finally, the presumption can be defeated by evidence that the worker was exposed to COVID-19 by an alternative source.
The proposed legislation further provides that no COVID-19 case will increase or affect any employers' workers' compensation experience rating.
The date of injury is not the date of diagnosis but the date the employee is first unable to work. And the COVID-19 worker's entitlement to TTD is not automatic; he must first be certified, meaning perhaps an off work slip specifically tying the disability to COVID-19. Finally, as to TTD, the employer gets a credit for payment to the worker under any Federal program.
The presumption will apply only to COVID-19 contracted on and after March 9, 2020 and on and before December 31, 2020.
Be cautioned that this is an evolving situation so the Agreed Bill may change somewhat before it is passed. But, in broad strokes, the above paints the picture the employers can expect to be viewing in the very near future.
BCM COVID-19 TASK FORCE
