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As Introduced
122nd General Assembly
Regular Session
1997-1998 | H. B. No. 558 |
REPRESENTATIVES WISE-CATES-WESTON-MAIER-COUGHLIN-GARCIA-
METELSKY-MALLORY-THOMAS-O'BRIEN-NETZLEY-JAMES-GRENDELL-
HOUSEHOLDER-COLONNA-JACOBSON-PRINGLE-HEALY-BOYD-LUCAS-SULZER
A BILL
To amend section 4123.01 of the Revised Code to provide workers' compensation
coverage for off-duty police officers who are
injured or killed while
responding to an emergency
situation.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:
Section 1. That section 4123.01 of the Revised Code be amended to read as
follows:
Sec. 4123.01. As used in this chapter:
(A)(1) "Employee" means:
(a) Every person in the service of the state, or of any
county, municipal corporation, township, or school district
therein, including regular members of lawfully constituted police
and fire departments of municipal corporations and townships,
whether paid or volunteer, and wherever serving within the state
or on temporary assignment outside thereof, and executive
officers of boards of education, under any appointment or
contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written, including
any elected official of the state, or of any county, municipal
corporation, or township, or members of boards of education;.
AS USED IN DIVISION (A)(1)(a) OF THIS SECTION, THE
TERM "REGULAR MEMBERS OF LAWFULLY CONSTITUTED POLICE AND FIRE DEPARTMENTS"
INCLUDES AN OFF-DUTY POLICE OFFICER OF A LAWFULLY CONSTITUTED POLICE
DEPARTMENT WHO RESPONDS TO AN INHERENTLY DANGEROUS SITUATION THAT DEMANDS AN
IMMEDIATE RESPONSE ON THE PART OF THE POLICE OFFICER, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER
THE POLICE OFFICER IS WITHIN THE POLICE OFFICER'S JURISDICTION WHEN
RESPONDING.
(b) Every person in the service of any person, firm, or
private corporation, including any public service corporation,
that (i) employs one or more persons regularly in the same
business or in or about the same establishment under any contract
of hire, express or implied, oral or written, including aliens
and minors, household workers who earn one hundred sixty dollars
or more in cash in any calendar quarter from a single household
and casual workers who earn one hundred sixty dollars or more in
cash in any calendar quarter from a single employer, or (ii) is
bound by any such contract of hire or by any other written
contract, to pay into the state insurance fund the premiums
provided by this chapter.
(c) Every person who performs labor or provides
services pursuant to a construction contract, as defined in
section 4123.79 of the Revised Code, if at least ten of the following criteria apply:
(i) The person is required to comply with
instructions from the other contracting party regarding the
manner or method of performing services;
(ii) The person is required by the other
contracting party to have particular training;
(iii) The person's services are
integrated into the regular functioning of the other contracting
party;
(iv) The person is required to perform the work personally;
(v) The person is hired, supervised, or paid by the other contracting party;
(vi) A continuing relationship exists
between the person and the other contracting party that
contemplates continuing or recurring work even if the work is
not full time;
(vii) The person's hours of work are
established by the other contracting party;
(viii) The person is required to devote full time
to the business of the other contracting party;
(ix) The person is required to perform the work on
the premises of the other contracting party;
(x) The person is required to follow
the order of work set by the other contracting party;
(xi) The person is required to make
oral or written reports of progress to the other contracting
party;
(xii) The person is paid for services
on a regular basis such as hourly, weekly, or monthly;
(xiii) The person's expenses are paid for by the other contracting party;
(xiv) The person's tools and
materials are furnished by the other contracting party;
(xv) The person is provided with the facilities used to perform services;
(xvi) The person does not realize a profit or
suffer a loss as a result of the services provided;
(xvii) The person is not performing
services for a number of employers at the same time;
(xviii) The person does not make the same services available to
the general public;
(xix) The other contracting party has
a right to discharge the person;
(xx) The person has the right to end
the relationship with the other contracting party without
incurring liability pursuant to an employment contract or
agreement.
Every person in the service of any independent contractor
or subcontractor who has failed to pay into the state insurance
fund the amount of premium determined and fixed by the
administrator of workers' compensation for the person's employment or
occupation or if a self-insuring employer has failed to pay
compensation and benefits directly to the employer's injured and to
the dependents of the employer's killed employees as required by
section 4123.35
of the Revised Code, shall be considered as the employee of the
person who has entered into a contract, whether written or
verbal, with such independent contractor unless such employees or
their legal representatives or beneficiaries elect, after injury
or death, to regard such independent contractor as the employer.
(2) "Employee" does not mean:
(a) A duly ordained, commissioned, or licensed minister or
assistant or associate minister of a church in the exercise of
ministry;
(b) Any officer of a family farm corporation; or
(c) An individual who signs the waiver and affidavit provided for
in section 4123.15 of the Revised Code, provided that the administrator has
granted a waiver and exception to the individual's employer under that
section.
Any employer may elect to include as an "employee" within
this chapter, any person excluded from the definition of
"employee" pursuant to division (A)(2) of this section. If an
employer is a partnership, sole proprietorship, or family farm
corporation, such employer may elect to include as an "employee"
within this chapter, any member of such partnership, the owner of
the sole proprietorship, or the officers of the family farm
corporation. In the event of an election, the employer shall
serve upon the bureau of workers' compensation written notice
naming the persons to be covered, include such employee's
remuneration for premium purposes in all future payroll reports,
and no person excluded from the definition of "employee" pursuant
to division (A)(2) of this section, proprietor, or partner shall
be deemed an employee within this division until the employer has
served such notice.
For informational purposes only, the bureau shall prescribe
such language as it considers appropriate, on such of its forms
as it considers appropriate, to advise employers of their right
to elect to include as an "employee" within this chapter a sole
proprietor, any member of a partnership, the officers of a family
farm corporation, or a person excluded from the definition of
"employee" under division (A)(2)(a) of this section, that they
should check any health and disability insurance policy, or other
form of health and disability plan or contract, presently
covering them, or the purchase of which they may be considering,
to determine whether such policy, plan, or contract excludes
benefits for illness or injury that they might have elected to
have covered by workers' compensation.
(B) "Employer" means:
(1) The state, including state hospitals, each county,
municipal corporation, township, school district, and hospital
owned by a political subdivision or subdivisions other than the
state;
(2) Every person, firm, and private corporation, including
any public service corporation, that (a) has in service one or
more employees regularly in the same business or in or about the
same establishment under any contract of hire, express or
implied, oral or written, or (b) is bound by any such contract of
hire or by any other written contract, to pay into the insurance
fund the premiums provided by this chapter.
All such employers are subject to this chapter. Any member
of a firm or association, who regularly performs manual labor in
or about a mine, factory, or other establishment, including a
household establishment, shall be considered an employee in
determining whether such person, firm, or private corporation, or
public service corporation, has in its service, one or more
employees and the employer shall report the income derived from
such labor to the bureau as part of the payroll of such employer,
and such member shall thereupon be entitled to all the benefits
of an employee.
(C) "Injury" includes any injury, whether caused by
external accidental means or accidental in character and result,
received in the course of, and arising out of, the injured
employee's employment. "Injury" does not include:
(1) Psychiatric conditions except where the conditions
have arisen from an injury;
(2) Injury, impairment, or disability caused primarily
by the natural
deterioration of tissue, an organ, or part of the body;
(3) Injury, impairment, or disability incurred in voluntary
participation in an employer-sponsored recreation or fitness
activity if the employee signs a waiver of the employee's right to
compensation or benefits under this chapter prior to engaging in
the recreation or fitness activity;
(4) A condition, impairment, or disease
process that pre-existed an injury unless that pre-existing condition or
impairment is substantially worsened or that disease process is substantially
accelerated by an injury as documented by objective
clinical findings and test results, and subjective complaints
without these findings and results are insufficient to establish
a compensable injury as described in division
(C)(4) of this section;
(5) Injury, impairment, or disability resulting from
cumulative or repetitive trauma.
(D) "Child" includes a posthumous child and a child
legally adopted prior to the injury.
(E) "Family farm corporation" means a corporation founded
for the purpose of farming agricultural land in which the
majority of the voting stock is held by and the majority of the
stockholders are persons or the spouse of persons related to each
other within the fourth degree of kinship, according to the rules
of the civil law, and at least one of the related persons is
residing on or actively operating the farm, and none of whose
stockholders are a corporation. A family farm corporation does
not cease to qualify under this division where, by reason of any
devise, bequest, or the operation of the laws of descent or
distribution, the ownership of shares of voting stock is
transferred to another person, as long as that person is within
the degree of kinship stipulated in this division.
(F) "Occupational disease" means a disease, including a
disease or condition that
results from a cumulative or repetitive trauma, that is contracted in the
course of
employment, that results in damage or harm to the physical structure of the
body, and that is due to
causes and conditions that are characteristic of or peculiar to a particular
industrial process, trade, or occupation. "Occupational disease" does not
include any of the following:
(1) A disease or condition to which the general public is exposed
outside of employment absent a showing, by a preponderance of the evidence,
that the disease or condition is characteristic of or peculiar to a
particular industrial process, trade, or occupation;
(2) A disease or condition that would have arisen without the occupational
exposure;
(3) A disease or condition that results from aggravation of a
pre-existing disease, condition, or disease process;
(4) A disease or condition caused primarily by the natural deterioration
of the tissue, organs, or other parts of the body;
(5) Psychiatric conditions, except where the conditions have arisen from
an occupational disease.
(G) "Self-insuring employer" means any of the following
categories of employers if granted the privilege of paying
compensation and benefits directly under section 4123.35 of the
Revised Code:
(1) Any employer mentioned in division (B)(2) of this
section;
(2) A board of county hospital trustees;
(3) A publicly owned utility.
Section 2. That existing section 4123.01 of the Revised Code is hereby
repealed.
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