N.J. Gov. Vetoes WC Bill Aimed at Emergency Workers, Citing Lack of Balance

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has vetoed a bill that would, for the purposes of providing workers' comp benefits, assume illnesses and disorders suffered by public workers stemmed from their employment unless evidence is provided in rebuttal.

The bill, N.J. Senate Bill 1778, or the "Thomas P. Canzanella Twenty First Century First Responders Protection Act," states that it is an "appropriate public policy to modernize the WC system in the state to ensure the meeting of the critical needs of public-safety workers" who are exposed to carcinogens, communicable diseases, radiation and related hazards. Complications from these exposures may take long periods of time to manifest themselves, masking the causality of the physical or psychological illness.

One of the criticisms of the bill, however, is that the Senate has not analyzed its potential financial impacts, and may attract more claims into the system. In a letter to the Senate, Christie wrote that state law already has a balanced system in place to determine a proper workers' compensation award to sick or injured emergency personnel. 

"This bill alters that careful balance by providing public safety workers with a presumption to workers' compensation, rebuttable only by clear and convincing evidence," he wrote. "This sweeping new standard would apply to disabilities associated with an array of enumerated incidents and, in some cases, disabilities not tethered to any work-related incident at all."

"We must…balance our responsibility to our public safety workers with our responsibility to the taxpaying public at large," wrote William G. Dressel, executive director of the N.J. State League of Municipalities in a letter to the Mayor's office. "Creating rebuttable presumptions such as this bill does will increase costs for municipalities, and those costs will be passed on to taxpayers."