HB2026 SFA Weld #1 3-9

Parsley  7816

 

Senator Weld moved to amend the bill by striking out everything after the enacting clause and inserting in lieu thereof the following:

 

ARTICLE 22A. WEST VIRGINIA MUNICIPAL POLICE OFFICERS AND FIREFIGHTERS RETIREMENT SYSTEM.

§8-22A-33a. Second special authorization for municipal police or firefighters hired after July 1, 2015.

 

(a) Notwithstanding any provision of this code to the contrary, any municipality or municipal subdivision that employs individuals as members of paid police departments or paid fire departments and whose current police officers or firefighters are participating in the Public Employees Retirement System may elect, as provided in same manner as provided in §8-22A-28 of this code, to become a participating public employer in the plan and thereby include its police officers and firefighters in the membership of the plan subject to the restrictions provided in this section.

(b) The municipality or municipal subdivision may elect to include only police officers or firefighters who have been hired on or after July 1, 2015, to become members of the plan.  Police officers or firefighters hired before July 1, 2015, will remain members of the Public Employees Retirement System.

(c) The municipality or municipal subdivision must make its election on or prior to July 1, 2025.

(d) Once a municipality or municipal subdivision makes its election to become a participating public employer pursuant to this section, all police officers or firefighters hired by the municipality or municipal subdivision after the date of election shall be members of the plan: Provided, That police officers or firefighters hired by the municipality or municipal subdivision on or after July 1, 2015, who are members of the Public Employees Retirement System, may choose to become a member of the plan by notifying the municipality or municipal subdivision on a form provided by the Consolidated Public Retirement Board:  Provided, however, That he or she make this decision within ninety days of the municipality or municipal subdivision’s decision to participate in the plan.  A municipality or municipal subdivision making an election to become a participating public employer pursuant to this section that has hired any police officer or firefighter on or after July 1, 2015, shall notify each police officer or firefighter hired on or after July 1, 2015, of its election to become a participating public employer within thirty days of making the election.  This notice shall include instructions as to how a police officer or firefighter may make notification to the municipality or municipal subdivision of his or her decision to become a member in the plan. The municipality or municipal subdivision shall notify the Consolidated Public Retirement Board in writing of any police officer or firefighter hired after July 1, 2015, who has decided to become a member of the plan and terminate his or her membership in the Public Employees Retirement System within thirty days of notification by the police officer or firefighter on forms provided by the Consolidated Public Retirement System.

(e) Notwithstanding any other provision of the code to the contrary, any police officer or firefighter hired by a participating public employer on or after July 1, 2015, who chooses pursuant to this section to be a member of the plan, shall be a member of the plan upon acceptance by the Consolidated Public Retirement Board of the notification by the municipality required by this section.

(1) The Consolidated Public Retirement Board shall transfer assets and service credit earned on or after July 1, 2015, from the Public Employees Retirement System Trust Fund into the West Virginia Municipal Police Officers and Firefighters Retirement Fund for those police officers or firefighters who elect to be a member of the plan and were members in the Public Employees Retirement System no later than sixty days from receipt of notification by the municipality or municipal subdivision of the police officer or firefighter’s election to become a member.  The amount of service credit recognized by the plan for the transferring employees shall be the service credit transferred and recognized by the Public Employees Retirement System.

(2) The amount of assets to be transferred for each police officer or firefighter shall be computed as of the actuarial valuation date preceding the notification to the Consolidated Public Retirement Board by the municipality or municipal subdivision of the police officer or firefighter’s election to become a member and updated with seven and one-half percent annual interest to the date of the actual asset transfer. For purposes of this section, the actuarial valuation date is the most recent actuarial valuation of the Public Employees Retirement System approved by the Consolidated Public Retirement Board. The market value of the assets of the transferring employees in the Public Employees Retirement System shall be determined as of the end of the month preceding the actual transfer. To determine the computation of the asset share to be transferred, the Consolidated Public Retirement Board shall:

(A) Compute the market value of the Public Employees Retirement System assets using the actuarial valuation date;

(B) Compute the actuarial accrued liabilities for all Public Employees Retirement System retirees, beneficiaries, disabled retirees and terminated inactive members using the actuarial valuation date:

(C) Compute the market value of active member assets in the Public Retirement System as of the actuarial valuation date by reducing the assets value under paragraph (A) of this subdivision by the inactive liabilities under paragraph (B) of this subdivision;

(D) Compute the actuarial accrued liability for all active Public Employees Retirement System members using the actuarial valuation date immediately preceding the computation date;

(E) Compute the funded percentage of the active members' actuarial accrued liabilities under the Public Employees Retirement System as of the actuarial valuation date by dividing the active members' market value of assets under paragraph (C) of this subdivision by the active members' actuarial accrued liabilities under paragraph (D) of this subsection;

(F) Compute the actuarial accrued liabilities under the Public Employees Retirement System as of the actuarial valuation date for active employees transferring to the plan;

(G) Determine the assets to be transferred from the Public Employees Retirement System to the plan by multiplying the active members' funded percentage determined under paragraph (E) of this subdivision by the transferring active members' actuarial accrued liabilities under the Public Employees Retirement System under paragraph (F) of this subdivision and adjusting the asset transfer amount by interest at seven and five-tenths percent for the period from the calculation date of July 1 through the first day of the month in which the asset transfer is to be completed.

(3) Any police officer or firefighter who elects to become a member of the plan must also pay to the plan a four percent contribution no later than June 30, 2027.  The contribution shall be calculated as four percent of the member’s total earnings for which assets are transferred, plus interest of seven and one-half percent accumulated from the date of the police officer’s or firefighter’s initial participation in the Public Employees Retirement System through the calculation date.  Installment payments may be made over no more than a twenty-four month period plus seven and one-half percent interest shall accrue on the outstanding balance due from the calculation date until paid in full.

(4) Once an employee transfers from the Public Employees Retirement System to the plan, the Public Employees Retirement System shall bar any further liability and said transfer will constitute an agreement whereby the transferring employee forever indemnifies and holds harmless the Public Employees Retirement System from providing him or her any form of retirement benefit whatsoever until that employee obtains other employment which would make him or her eligible to reenter the Public Employees Retirement System with no credit whatsoever for the amounts transferred to the plan.

ARTICLE 4. DISABILITY AND DEATH BENEFITS.

§23-4-1. To whom compensation fund disbursed; occupational pneumoconiosis and other occupational diseases included in "injury" and "personal injury"; definition of occupational pneumoconiosis and other occupational diseases; rebuttable presumption for cardiovascular injury and disease or pulmonary disease for firefighters.

 

(a) Subject to the provisions and limitations elsewhere in this chapter, workers' compensation benefits shall be paid from the Workers' Compensation Fund, to the employees of employers subject to this chapter who have received personal injuries in the course of and resulting from their covered employment or to the dependents, if any, of the employees in case death has ensued, according to the provisions hereinafter made: Provided, That in the case of any employees of the state and its political subdivisions, including: Counties; municipalities; cities; towns; any separate corporation or instrumentality established by one or more counties, cities or towns as permitted by law; any corporation or instrumentality supported in most part by counties, cities or towns; any public corporation charged by law with the performance of a governmental function and whose jurisdiction is coextensive with one or more counties, cities or towns; any agency or organization established by the Department of Mental Health, or its successor agencies, for the provision of community health or intellectual and developmental disability services and which is supported, in whole or in part, by state, county, or municipal funds; board, agency, commission, department, or spending unit, including any agency created by rule of the Supreme Court of Appeals, who have received personal injuries in the course of and resulting from their covered employment, the employees are ineligible to receive compensation while the employees are at the same time and for the same reason drawing sick leave benefits. The state employees may only use sick leave for nonjob-related absences consistent with sick leave use and may draw workers’ compensation benefits only where there is a job-related injury. This proviso does not apply to permanent benefits: Provided, however, That the employees may collect sick leave benefits until receiving temporary total disability benefits. The Division of Personnel shall propose rules for legislative approval pursuant to §29A-3-1 et seq. of this code relating to use of sick leave benefits by employees receiving personal injuries in the course of and resulting from covered employment: Provided further, That if an employee is injured in the course of and resulting from covered employment and the injury results in lost time from work and the employee for whatever reason uses or obtains sick leave benefits and subsequently receives temporary total disability benefits for the same time period, the employee may be restored sick leave time taken by him or her as a result of the compensable injury by paying to his or her employer the temporary total disability benefits received or an amount equal to the temporary total disability benefits received. The employee shall be restored sick leave time on a day-for-day basis which corresponds to temporary total disability benefits paid to the employer: And provided further, That since the intent of this subsection is to prevent an employee of the state or any of its political subdivisions from collecting both temporary total disability benefits and sick leave benefits for the same time period, nothing in this subsection prevents an employee of the state or any of its political subdivisions from electing to receive either sick leave benefits or temporary total disability benefits, but not both.

(b) For the purposes of this chapter, the terms "injury" and "personal injury" include occupational pneumoconiosis and any other occupational disease, as hereinafter defined, and workers' compensation benefits shall be paid to the employees of the employers in whose employment the employees have been exposed to the hazards of occupational pneumoconiosis or other occupational disease and have contracted occupational pneumoconiosis or other occupational disease, or have suffered a perceptible aggravation of an existing pneumoconiosis or other occupational disease, or to the dependents, if any, of the employees, in case death has ensued, according to the provisions hereinafter made: Provided, That compensation is not payable for the disease of occupational pneumoconiosis, or death resulting from the disease, unless the employee has been exposed to the hazards of occupational pneumoconiosis in the State of West Virginia over a continuous period of not less than two years during the 10 years immediately preceding the date of his or her last exposure to such hazards, or for any five of the 15 years immediately preceding the date of his or her last exposure.  An application for benefits on account of occupational pneumoconiosis shall set forth the name of the employer or employers and the time worked for each.  The commission may allocate to and divide any charges resulting from such claim among the employers by whom the claimant was employed for as much as 60 days during the period of three years immediately preceding the date of last exposure to the hazards of occupational pneumoconiosis. The allocation shall be based upon the time and degree of exposure with each employer.

(c) For the purposes of this chapter, disability or death resulting from occupational pneumoconiosis, as defined in subsection (d) of this section, shall be treated and compensated as an injury by accident.

(d) Occupational pneumoconiosis is a disease of the lungs caused by the inhalation of minute particles of dust over a period of time due to causes and conditions arising out of and in the course of the employment. The term "occupational pneumoconiosis" includes, but is not limited to, such diseases as silicosis, anthracosilicosis, coal worker’s pneumoconiosis, commonly known as black lung or miner's asthma, silicotuberculosis (silicosis accompanied by active tuberculosis of the lungs), coal worker's pneumoconiosis accompanied by active tuberculosis of the lungs, asbestosis, siderosis, anthrax, and any and all other dust diseases of the lungs and conditions and diseases caused by occupational pneumoconiosis which are not specifically designated in this section meeting the definition of occupational pneumoconiosis set forth in this subsection.

(e) In determining the presence of occupational pneumoconiosis, x-ray evidence may be considered, but may not be accorded greater weight than any other type of evidence demonstrating occupational pneumoconiosis.

(f) For the purposes of this chapter, occupational disease means a disease incurred in the course of and resulting from employment.  No ordinary disease of life to which the general public is exposed outside of the employment is compensable except when it follows as an incident of occupational disease as defined in this chapter. Except in the case of occupational pneumoconiosis, a disease is considered to have been incurred in the course of or to have resulted from the employment only if it is apparent to the rational mind, upon consideration of all the circumstances: (1) That there is a direct causal connection between the conditions under which work is performed and the occupational disease; (2) that it can be seen to have followed as a natural incident of the work as a result of the exposure occasioned by the nature of the employment; (3) that it can be fairly traced to the employment as the proximate cause; (4) that it does not come from a hazard to which workmen would have been equally exposed outside of the employment; (5) that it is incidental to the character of the business and not independent of the relation of employer and employee; and (6) that it appears to have had its origin in a risk connected with the employment and to have flowed from that source as a natural consequence, though it need not have been foreseen or expected before its contraction: Provided, That compensation is not payable for an occupational disease or death resulting from the disease unless the employee has been exposed to the hazards of the disease in the State of West Virginia over a continuous period that is determined to be sufficient, by rule of the board of managers, for the disease to have occurred in the course of and resulting from the employee’s employment.  An application for benefits on account of an occupational disease shall set forth the name of the employer or employers and the time worked for each.  The commission may allocate to and divide any charges resulting from the claim among the employers by whom the claimant was employed. The allocation shall be based upon the time and degree of exposure with each employer.

(g) No award may be made under the provisions of this chapter for any occupational disease contracted prior to July 1, 1949.  An employee has contracted an occupational disease within the meaning of this subsection if the disease or condition has developed to such an extent that it can be diagnosed as an occupational disease.

(h) For purposes of this chapter, a rebuttable presumption that a professional firefighter who has developed a cardiovascular or pulmonary disease or sustained a cardiovascular injury or who has developed leukemia, lymphoma, or multiple myeloma, bladder cancer, mesothelioma, or testicular cancer arising out of and in the course of employment as a firefighter has received an injury or contracted a disease arising out of and in the course of his or her employment exists if: (A) The person has been actively employed by a fire department as a professional firefighter for a minimum of two years prior to the cardiovascular injury or onset of a cardiovascular or pulmonary disease or death; (B) the injury or onset of the disease or death occurred within six months of having participated in fire fighting firefighting or a training or drill exercise which actually involved fire fighting firefighting; and (C) in the case of the development of leukemia, lymphoma, or multiple myeloma, bladder cancer, mesothelioma, or testicular cancer, the person has been actively employed by a fire department as a professional firefighter for a minimum of five years in the state prior to the development of leukemia, lymphoma, or multiple myeloma, bladder cancer, mesothelioma, or testicular cancer, has not used tobacco products for at least 10 years has not used tobacco products more than six times in a calendar for at least 10 years, and is not over the age of 65 years. When the above conditions are met, it shall be presumed that sufficient notice of the injury, disease, or death has been given and that the injury, disease, or death was not self inflicted self-inflicted. The amendments made to this section during the regular session of the Legislature, 2023, to include bladder cancer, mesothelioma or testicular cancer arising out of and in the course of employment as a firefighter as a rebuttable presumption expire on July 1, 2027, unless extended by the Legislature.

(i) Claims for occupational disease as defined in §23-4-1(f) of this code, except occupational pneumoconiosis for all workers and pulmonary disease and cardiovascular injury and disease for professional firefighters, shall be processed in like manner as claims for all other personal injuries.

 

 

Adopted

Rejected