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S. B. No. 223As IntroducedAs Introduced
124th General Assembly | Regular Session | 2001-2002 |
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SENATOR Wachtmann
A BILL
To amend sections 4123.01 and 4123.80 of the Revised
Code to define "injury" for purposes of the
Workers' Compensation Law to include, for emergency
workers, instances when their blood or other body
fluid comes in direct contact with the blood or
other body fluid of another person while working.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:
Section 1. That sections 4123.01 and 4123.80 of the Revised
Code be amended to read as follows:
Sec. 4123.01. As used in this chapter: (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 the following persons when the person
responds to an inherently dangerous situation that calls for an
immediate response on the part of the person, regardless of
whether the person is within the limits of the jurisdiction of the
person's regular employment or voluntary service when responding,
on the condition that the person responds to the situation as the
person otherwise would if the person were on duty in the person's
jurisdiction:
(i) Off-duty peace officers. As used in division
(A)(1)(a)(i) of this section, "peace officer" means a member of
the organized police department of any municipal corporation,
including a member of the organized police department of a
municipal corporation in an adjoining state serving in Ohio under
a contract pursuant to section 737.04 of the Revised Code, member
of a police force employed by a metropolitan housing authority
under division (D) of section 3735.31 of the Revised Code, member
of a police force employed by a regional transit authority under
division (Y) of section 306.05 of the Revised Code, state
university law enforcement officer appointed under section 3345.04
of the Revised Code, Ohio veterans' home police officer appointed
under section 5907.02 of the Revised Code, police constable of any
township, police officer of a township or joint township police
district, state highway patrol trooper, and member of a qualified
nonprofit corporation police department established pursuant to
section 1702.80 of the Revised Code.
As used in division (A)(1)(a) of this section with respect to
off-duty peace officers, "jurisdiction" means the limits of the
municipal corporation, township, metropolitan housing authority
housing project, regional transit authority facilities or areas of
a municipal corporation that have been agreed to by a regional
transit authority and a municipal corporation located within its
territorial jurisdiction, college, university, or Ohio veterans'
home in which the peace officer is appointed, employed, or
elected.
(ii) Off-duty firefighters, whether paid or volunteer, of a
lawfully constituted fire department. As used in division
(A)(1)(a) of this section with respect to off-duty firefighters,
"jurisdiction" means the limits of the political subdivision,
joint ambulance district, fire district, or joint fire district in
which the firefighter is appointed or employed.
(iii) Off-duty first responders, emergency medical
technicians-basic, emergency medical technicians-intermediate, or
emergency medical technicians-paramedic, whether paid or
volunteer, of an ambulance service organization or emergency
medical service organization pursuant to Chapter 4765. of the
Revised Code. As used in division (A)(1)(a) of this section with
respect to off-duty first responders and emergency medical
technicians, "jurisdiction" means the limits of the political
subdivision or joint ambulance district in which the first
responder or emergency medical technician is employed or
volunteers as a first responder or emergency medical technician.
(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; or
(b) Any officer of a family farm corporation.
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.
(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)(1) "Injury" includes
any
both of the following: (a) 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. ";
(b) For regular members of lawfully constituted police and
fire departments and emergency medical workers, "injury" includes
coming into contact with the blood or other body fluid of another
person in the course of and arising out of the peace officer's,
firefighter's, or emergency medical worker's employment, through
any of the following means:
(i) Splash or spatter in the eye or mouth other than when
received in the course of conducting mouth-to-mouth resuscitation;
(ii) A puncture in the skin;
(iii) A cut in the skin or another opening in the skin such
as an open sore, wound, lesion, abrasion, or ulcer. (2) "Injury" does not include:
(1)(a) Psychiatric conditions except where the conditions
have arisen from an injury or occupational disease;
(2)(b) Injury or disability caused primarily by the natural
deterioration of tissue, an organ, or part of the body;
(3)(c) Injury 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.
(3) As used in this division:
(a) The term "regular members of lawfully constituted
police and fire departments" has the same meaning as in division
(A)(1)(a) of this section.
(b) "Emergency medical worker" means a first responder,
emergency medical technician-basic, emergency medical
technician-intermediate, or emergency medical
technician-paramedic, certified under Chapter 4765. of the Revised
Code, whether paid or volunteer.
(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 contracted in the
course of employment, which by its causes and the characteristics
of its manifestation or the condition of the employment results in
a hazard which distinguishes the employment in character from
employment generally, and the employment creates a risk of
contracting the disease in greater degree and in a different
manner from the public in general.
(G) "Self-insuring employer" means an employer who is
granted the privilege of paying compensation and benefits directly
under section 4123.35 of the Revised Code, including a board of
county commissioners for the sole purpose of constructing a sports
facility as defined in section 307.696 of the Revised Code,
provided that the electors of the county in which the sports
facility is to be built have approved construction of a sports
facility by ballot election no later than November 6, 1997.
(H) "Public employer" means an employer as defined in
division (B)(1) of this section.
Sec. 4123.80. No agreement by an employee to waive
his
the
employee's rights to
compensation under this chapter is valid,
except that: (A) An employee who is blind may waive the compensation that
may
become due
him
to the employee for injury or disability in
cases
where the injury or disability may be
directly caused by or
due to
his
the employee's blindness. The
administrator of
workers' compensation, with the advice and consent of the
workers'
compensation oversight commission, may adopt and enforce
rules
governing the employment of such persons and the
inspection of
their places of employment. (B) An employee may waive
his
the employee's rights to
compensation or benefits as authorized pursuant to division
(C)(3)(2)(c) of section
4123.01 of the Revised Code. No agreement by an employee to pay any portion of the premium
paid by
his
the employee's
employer into the state insurance fund
is valid.
Section 2. That existing sections 4123.01 and 4123.80 of the
Revised Code are hereby repealed.
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