AN ACT Relating to county, municipal, and political subdivision employees; amending RCW 51.32.090; and adding a new section to chapter 41.04 RCW.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. A new section is added to chapter 41.04 RCW to read as follows:

(1) Employers of law enforcement officers and fire fighters shall provide such employees who qualify for compensation under chapter 51.32 RCW with a salary continuation disability allowance. For purposes of this subsection, a salary continuation disability allowance is in the nature of workers' compensation and is compensation for personal injury or sickness incurred in the course of employment.

(2) The salary continuation disability allowance shall be an amount which, when added to the compensation an employee will receive or has received under chapter 51.32 RCW, will result in the employee receiving full pay for the workdays missed. The employee shall receive full pay for any workday missed during any waiting period in which the employee is not eligible for compensation under chapter 51.32 RCW. The total amount of salary continuation disability allowance and compensation under chapter 51.32 RCW shall not exceed one hundred percent of the employee's full pay. This salary continuation disability allowance shall continue as long as the employee is receiving compensation under chapter 51.32 RCW, up to a maximum of twelve consecutive months.

(3) While an employee is receiving a salary continuation disability allowance, the employee, after obtaining a release from the treating physician, shall perform such light-duty tasks in the employee's previous department as the employer may make available, with no reduction in the salary continuation disability allowance.

(4) The employee's accrued sick leave shall not be reduced for workdays missed as a result of receiving benefits under this section. The employee shall continue to receive all benefits that are fully funded by the employer and are provided to active employees from the employer for the period of time the employee was eligible for a salary continuation disability allowance.

Sec. 2. Section 51.32.090, chapter 23, Laws of 1961 as last amended by section 1, chapter 129, Laws of 1980 and RCW 51.32.090 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) When the total disability is only temporary, the schedule of payments contained in ((~~subdivisions~~)) subsections (1) through (13) of RCW 51.32.060 as amended shall apply, so long as the total disability continues.

(2) Any compensation payable under this section for children not in the custody of the injured worker as of the date of injury shall be payable only to such person as actually is providing the support for such child or children pursuant to the order of a court of record providing for support of such child or children.

(3) As soon as recovery is so complete that the present earning power of the worker, at any kind of work, is restored to that existing at the time of the occurrence of the injury, the payments shall cease. If and so long as the present earning power is only partially restored, the payments shall continue in the proportion which the new earning power shall bear to the old. No compensation shall be payable unless the loss of earning power shall exceed five percent. However, during the period a worker returns to light-duty work, receives payments pursuant to section 1 of this 1985 act, and is otherwise eligible for compensation under this section, the worker shall continue to receive such compensation at the rate provided under RCW 51.32.060 (1) through (13).

(4) Whenever an employer requests that a worker who is entitled to temporary total disability under this chapter be certified by a physician as able to perform available work other than his or her usual work, the employer shall furnish to the physician, with a copy to the worker, a statement describing the available work in terms that will enable the physician to relate the physical activities of the job to the worker's disability. The physician shall then determine whether the worker is physically able to perform the work described. If the worker is released by his or her physician for said work, and the work thereafter comes to an end before the worker's recovery is sufficient in the judgment of his or her physician to permit him or her to return to his or her usual job, or to perform other available work, the worker's temporary total disability payments shall be resumed. Should the available work described, once undertaken by the worker, impede his or her recovery to the extent that in the judgment of his or her physician he or she should not continue to work, the worker's temporary total disability payments shall be resumed when the worker ceases such work.

Once the worker returns to work under the terms of this subsection, he or she shall not be assigned by the employer to work other than the available work described without the worker's written consent, or without prior review and approval by the worker's physician.

In the event of any dispute as to the worker's ability to perform the available work offered by the employer, the department shall make the final determination.

(5) No worker shall receive compensation for or during the day on which injury was received or the three days following the same, unless his or her disability shall continue for a period of fourteen consecutive calendar days from date of injury: PROVIDED, That attempts to return to work in the first fourteen days following the injury shall not serve to break the continuity of the period of disability if the disability continues fourteen days after the injury occurs.

(6) Should a worker suffer a temporary total disability and should his or her employer at the time of the injury continue to pay him or her the wages which he or she was earning at the time of such injury, such injured worker shall not receive any payment provided in subsection (1) of this section during the period his or her employer shall so pay such wages. This limitation does not apply to salary continuation disability allowance payments made pursuant to section 1 of this 1985 act.

(7) In no event shall the monthly payments provided in this section exceed seventy-five percent of the average monthly wage in the state as computed under the provisions of RCW 51.08.018.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected.