Farm Bureau Legal Webinar: SB 1159 (Workers Comp)

The California Senate has passed SB 1159 (Workers' Compensation: COVID-19).

SB 1159 codifies and supersedes Governor Newsom’s Executive Order N-62-20, which had covered all California employees who worked at a jobsite outside their home at the direction of their employer between March 19 and July 5, 2020, including farmworkers.

SB 1159 codifies the COVID-19 presumption created by Executive Order N-62-20 and provides two new rebuttable presumptions that an employee’s illness related to coronavirus is an occupational injury and therefore eligible for workers’ compensation benefits, if specified criteria are met. 

As amended and currently published, SB 1159 contains 5 sections, three of which contain presumptions that apply to different groups of employees and with different rules as to how each presumption will be triggered. Two new presumptions are created, including one for employees who contracted COVID-19 during an outbreak at the employer's worksite.

Napa County Farm Bureau is offering the following webinar from attorneys Taylor Arnold and Keith Teague from the law firm Hanna Brophy, LLP as they review and analyze this new legislation.

To view the webinar, please click below:

SB 1159: Workers' Compensation & COVID-19 Webinar

To view the presentation slides, please click below:

SB 1159: Workers' Compensation & COVID-19 Webinar Slides

Napa County Farm Bureau