09/29/2025
The California legislature adjourned this year’s session on September 13th after going past the midnight deadline for all bills to be passed out of the legislature and sent to the Governor’s desk for signature. Therefore, Governor Newsom has until October 13th to sign or veto the bills sent to him (or let them become law without his signature). These bills, if signed into law, will bring changes to the CA Workers’ Comp system impacting injured workers, their attorneys, and the broader legal and labor communities. Below is a brief overview of each of the bills we have been following that have ended up on the Governor’s Desk during this year’s legislative session:
AB 799 (Rodriguez) Death Benefits for Incarcerated Firefighters:
This bill would require the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to pay a death benefit, as specified, for the death of any incarcerated individual crew members in the California Conservation Camp program.
AB 1125 (Nguyen) Workers’ compensation: Peace Officers:
This bill would expand an existing rebuttable presumption of occupational injury for heart injury in security officers at Atascadero State Hospital to include any peace officer employed by the Department of State Hospitals (DSH).
AB 1181 (Haney) Firefighters: Personal Protective Equipment:
This bill would require the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (OSHSB) to consider modifying its existing safety order regarding firefighter personal protective equipment (PPE) by January 1, 2028, in a manner that addresses National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) performance standards that are not relevant to how firefighters use their PPE and that result in the use of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), flame retardants, and other hazardous substances in firefighting personal protective garments and auxiliary firefighting PPE.
AB 1293 (Wallis): Qualified Medical Evaluators:
This bill would require the DWC to create standard forms for communicating with Qualified Medical Evaluators and for writing QME reports. It also requires official rules to be made for these changes by Jan 1, 2027 including a process for reviewing QME reports that may be inaccurate or incomplete.
AB 1329 (Ortega) Workers’ Compensation: Subsequent Injuries Payments:
This bill would make changes to the process of filing, evaluating, and paying claims for special additional compensation from the Subsequent Injuries Benefits Trust Fund (SIBTF). Specifically, this bill would align the med-legal process in SIBTF claims with that of regular workers compensation claims and add a statute of limitations for filing claims.
AB 1336 (Addis): Farmworker Heat-Related Injuries:
This bill would create a presumption that a heat-related injury that develops within a specified timeframe after working outdoors for an employer in the agriculture industry who fails to comply with heat illness prevention standards.
AB 1398 (Valencia) Self-Dealing Schemes:
This bill would require anyone involved in referring services to disclose in writing any financial interest they have when a claim for payment is submitted. It also clarifies that prosecutors can bring felony charges under existing fraud laws (penal Code 550) when someone is involved in self-dealing schemes, even if the scheme also violates Labor code Section 139.2.
SB 8 (Ashby) Peace Officers: injury or Illness: Leaves of Absence:
This bill would expand the application of enhanced temporary disability (TD) benefits (commonly referred to as "4850 time") to park rangers employed by Sacramento County.
SB 20 (Menjivar) Occupational Safety: High-Exposure Trigger Tasks on Artificial Stone:
This bill would address worker safety in the artificial stone fabrication industry by prohibiting a person or entity engaged in “high-exposure trigger tasks” from using dry methods when engaging in those tasks. It requires an owner or operator of a fabrication shop, or any individual who employs another individual to perform high-exposure trigger tasks in a fabrication shop, to ensure that any employee who performs those tasks receives training and to provide to Cal/OSHA a written attestation of that training. It also requires the State Department of Public Health (CDPH) to conduct outreach to these businesses.
SB 230 (Laird) Workers’ compensation: firefighters:
This bill, for injuries occurring on or after January 1, 2026, would expand rebuttable presumptions that specified diagnoses are occupational and therefore covered by workers’ compensation to active firefighting members of a fire department that serve a United States Department of Defense (DOD) installation, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) installation, and provide fire protection to a commercial airport.
SB 291 (Grayson) Contractors: Workers’ Compensation Insurance:
This bill would require the Contractors State License Board (CSLB) to report statistical data on violations of workers’ compensation coverage requirements. It also increases the civil penalty amount for violating workers’ compensation coverage requirements and requires the CSLB to provide a process to verify exemption eligibility for workers’ compensation coverage by January 1, 2027.
SB 294 (Reyes) The Workplace Know Your Rights Act:
This bill would require employers to provide a stand-alone written notice annually to each employee informing them of their rights under state and federal law. It would direct the Labor Commissioner to develop a template notice, as well as videos for employers and employees informing them of their responsibilities and rights. The law would also require employers, if authorized by an employee, to contact an employee's designated emergency contact if the employee is arrested or detained and authorizes various penalties for noncompliant employers.
SB 447 (Umberg) Death Benefits:
This bill would extend health insurance benefits for the minor dependents of fallen firefighters and peace officers. Currently those benefits end at age 21 if there is no surviving spouse, this bill raises the age limit to 26.
SB 487 (Grayson) Injured Peace Officers and Firefighters:
This bill would ensure that injured peace officers and firefighters receive at least two-thirds of the at-fault party’s insurance policy limits if their damages are greater than what's left after their employer is reimbursed. It would limit how much an employer can recover from a third-party settlement and prohibit employers from using the employee’s recovery to reduce future workers’ compensation benefits. Any settlement must clearly separate the portion owed to the employee and limit the employer’s claim to the rest.
SB 847 (Reyes) Workers’ Compensation: Uninsured Employer: Transfer of Real Property:
This bill would stop “fraud-on-fraud” scheming by authorizing the Director to make a prima facie determination in relation to UEBTF cases. Specifically, the bill authorizes the Director to make a prima facie determination – when an illegally uninsured employer has transferred a real property to an insider without consideration after a worker injury -- that the real property is held in a “resulting trust” in favor of the illegally uninsured employer or substantial shareholder, such that the Director’s certificate lien would continue to attach to the property so that DIR may obtain reimbursement from the employer for all sums paid by UEBTF on the injured worker’s claim.
CAAA will continue to monitor legislation affecting Workers’ Compensation closely. Stay tuned for updates as the Governor signs or vetoes these proposals.
