§ 35 — Safety net

New York § 35

• Jurisdiction: New York
• Law WKC: Workers' Compensation
• Art. 2: Compensation

Text

§ 35. Safety net. 1. Return to work. (a) The commissioner of labor\nwill issue a report to the governor, the speaker of the assembly, the\nmajority leader of the senate, and the chairs of the labor, ways and\nmeans and finance committees of the assembly and senate on or before\nDecember first, two thousand seven, making recommendations as to how to\nassure that workers categorized by the board as permanently partially\ndisabled return to gainful employment to the greatest extent\npracticable. Such commissioner will consider administrative and\nlegislative remedies, and shall include estimates of cost in the report.\nThe report shall examine best practices and the laws of other\njurisdictions, as well as any relevant programs authorized by New York\nlaw. The report shall additionally examine return to work practices as\nimplemented by carriers, the state insurance fund, employers, and the\nboard. It shall also examine the relationship of vocational\nrehabilitation to ultimate return to work.\n (b) The commissioner of labor will be assisted by an advisory council\nconstituted of six persons appointed by the governor as follows:\n (i) a representative of organized labor appointed upon recommendation\nof the New York State American Federation of Labor-Congress of\nIndustrial Organizations;\n (ii) a representative of the business community appointed upon\nrecommendation of the Business Council of New York State, Incorporated;\n (iii) one person upon recommendation of the majority leader of the\nsenate;\n (iv) one person upon recommendation of the speaker of the assembly;\nand\n (v) two other persons in the governor's discretion.\n 2. Total industrial disability. No provision of this article shall in\nany way be read to derogate or impair current or future claimants'\nexisting rights to apply at any time to obtain the status of total\nindustrial disability under current case law.\n 3. Extreme hardship redetermination. In cases where the loss of\nwage-earning capacity is greater than seventy-five percent, a claimant\nmay request, within the year prior to the scheduled exhaustion of\nindemnity benefits under paragraph w of subdivision three of section\nfifteen of this article, that the board reclassify the claimant to\npermanent total disability or total industrial disability due to factors\nreflecting extreme hardship.\n 4. Annual safety net reporting. The board, in conjunction with the\ncommissioner of labor and the superintendent of financial services,\nshall track all claimants who have been awarded permanent partial\ndisability status and report annually on December first, beginning in\ntwo thousand eight, to the governor, the speaker of the assembly, the\nmajority leader of the senate, and the chairs of the labor, ways and\nmeans and finance committees of the assembly and senate:\n (i) The number of said claimants who have:\n (1) returned to gainful employment;\n (2) been recategorized as being totally industrially disabled;\n (3) remain subject to duration limitations set forth in paragraph w of\nsubdivision three of section fifteen of this article; and\n (4) not returned to work, and whose indemnity payments have expired.\n (ii) The additional steps the commissioner contemplates are necessary\nto minimize the number of workers who have neither returned to work nor\nbeen recategorized from permanent partial disability.\n