A new bill would make pandemic-era COVID-19 infections a presumptive occupational disease. The bill is scheduled for a hearing this week.

HB 1785 is sponsored by Rep. Liz Berry (D–Seattle). It creates a presumptive occupational disease (for the purposes of workers’ compensation) for infectious contagious respiratory diseases that are subject to a declared public health emergency (currently, only COVID-19, but theoretically others) if the worker can show their employment or work conditions proximately caused their infection. The bill permits workers or survivors of deceased workers who had a COVID-19 workers’ comp claim denied before the effective date of the bill to file a new claim. It contains an emergency clause and would take effect once passed and signed into law by the Governor.

As currently drafted, HB 1785 would only create a presumption for claims that arose from infections during either the state or federal declared public health emergencies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The state’s public health emergency for COVID-19 expired in October of last year and President Biden recently announced he planned to end the federal public health emergency on May 11.

The bill’s stated intent is to overturn a recent pandemic-era Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals decision. In that case, the board denied workers’ compensation to an infected log yard worker because his job had no “distinctive conditions” that made it inherently higher risk for COVID-19 than otherwise existed in the general public during the pandemic. This was despite the fact that the log yard worker was likely infected at work.

It is important to ensure that high-risk workers are protected by presumptive occupational disease findings. However, AWC generally supports maintaining the integrity of the workers’ compensation system and its current decision-making process for claims appeals. AWC thinks the legislature should maintain a neutral system for making claims decisions and avoid legislating around individual cases or decisions.

Dates to remember

HB 1785 is scheduled for a public hearing in the House Labor & Workplace Standards Committee on Friday, February 17 at 10:30 am.