Managing Employee Injuries and Disability and Occupational Safety

8. S ECONDARY I NJURIES A new injury subsequent to an original covered injury may, under some circumstances, be a proximate result of the original injury and, therefore, be compensable. If the original injury is a contributing factor to the subsequent injury, the subsequent injury is covered. Likewise, an employee is entitled to compensation for a new or aggravated injury resulting from the medical or surgical treatment of an industrial injury. 34 F. P RESUMPTIONS OF I NJURY Certain disabling conditions or injuries which occur with respect to safety employees are presumed to result from a work-related cause. The presumptions may be disputed by other evidence, but for all practical purposes, the burden is frequently on the employer to disprove the fact of industrial causation. 1. I NJURIES C OVERED With regards to peace officers and firefighters, heart trouble, pneumonia, cancer, tuberculosis and hernia are presumed to be due to industrial causes. Labor Code Sections 3212-3213. 2. E MPLOYMENT C OVERED A presumption is only applicable to employees who are engaged in active law enforcement or firefighting. Employees whose functions are clerical or otherwise do not clearly fall within the scope of active law enforcement or active firefighting, such as stenographers, telephone operations, or office workers, are not entitled to the presumption. 3. E LIGIBILITY Another requirement is that the officer’s service be on regular full-time salary. The exception to this is volunteer or part-time firefighters who are covered by the presumption of injury for heart trouble, hernia and pneumonia. Labor Code Section 3212. In workers’ compensation law, an employee may suffer a disability long after the employment exposure which may have caused the injury. This rule has familiar application in cases involving toxic exposure, as, for example, in the case of asbestosis. In the same way, an employee may have a heart attack three years after he left his last employment.

In such a case, does a safety employee have an open ended right to claim the presumption?

The answer is that the duration of the presumption is limited. All of the presumptions, except the cancer presumption for firefighters, contain a limitation that the presumption shall be extended to employees following termination of service for a period of three calendar months for each full year of service, not to exceed sixty months, commencing with the last date actually worked in the specified capacity.

Managing Employee Injuries, Disability and Occupational Safety ©2019 (s) Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 29