Accepting the recommendations of the New York September 11 Worker Protection Task Force, New York Gov. David Paterson said he will submit legislation to provide benefits to additional public workers involved in the World Trade Center recovery efforts.
The proposed legislation would provide the "presumptive accidental disability retirement benefit" – health benefits currently available to some 9/11 first responders – to additional groups.
Those added under the new proposal would include: state and county corrections officers and deputy sheriffs; non-uniformed first responders who were not required to undergo a pre-employment physical examination; 911 dispatchers; emergency vehicle radio repair mechanics and vested members of a public pension system who terminated their employment prior to filing a claim.
Also, workers who became disabled more than two years after 9/11, but before an extension was granted in the Workers Compensation Law which would have covered them, and first responders who worked for any period of time within the first 48 hours after the first plane hit the World Trade Center.
Current law sets the limit at 40 hours, but Gov. Paterson said that evidence presented by the task force shows that workers at the site within the first 48 hours are at risk for illness.
Additionally, the governor said that the geographic boundaries of the 9/11 disability benefits law would be expanded to emergency vehicle garages and emergency call centers, because, he said, the task force found that emergency vehicle radio repair mechanics were exposed to dust, and 911 operators "experienced psychological trauma that has led to disabilities similar to those suffered by workers at the World Trade Center site."
The Task Force, formed by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, is charged with making recommendations regarding the adequacy of coverage and treatment for disabilities resulting from the 9/11 recovery efforts.
Gov. Paterson's legislation is based on recommendations made by the task force's interim report, released on March 4, which included a report of the Doctor's Committee to the task force.
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