Amended Bill Would Cover Mental Injuries for All Workers, Not Just First Responders

Monday, April 10, 2017 | 0

The House Commerce and Economic Development Committee has approved a bill that makes mental health disorders sustained on the job compensable for all workers.

Gov. Phil Scott had asked the panel to narrow the bill’s scope to make only first responders eligible for workers’ compensation for mental injuries.

The committee voted 9-1 in favor of an amended version of H.197, which is now before the Appropriations Committee to determine the fiscal impact, vtdigger.com reported.

The bill would provide coverage for mental health issues that are work-related and result from an amount of stress that is above what typically encountered by the average worker.

It creates a legal presumption of PTSD for first responders, rebuttable by their employers, and overturns a 2003 state Supreme Court decision that a firefighter was not eligible for PTSD coverage.

The amended bill clarifies that mental injuries are not compensable if unrelated to work or if they arise out of an employer’s good-faith disciplinary action against the worker, the website reported.