{ "type": "rich", "version": "1.0", "provider_name": "Action Network", "provider_url": "https://actionnetwork.org", "html": "
", "author_name": "North Carolina AFL-CIO", "author_url": "https://actionnetwork.org/groups/north-carolina-afl-cio", "title": "Workers' Compensation for COVID-19", "thumbnail_url": "https://can2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/letters/photos/000/111/913/normal/cover_essential_workers.jpg", "description": "While many can stay home safely during the pandemic, essential workers are out risking their lives every day to make sure that society’s basic needs are met. Among other things, essential workers provide healthcare, produce, and deliver food, carry mail, make deliveries and provide transportation. Without these necessary services, our state and country would be unable to survive the coronavirus pandemic.   Because essential workers must be at work they are at a much greater risk of contracting coronavirus. Many essential workers have already contracted the virus, and many more will. Some of these workers will lose time from work. Others will suffer damage to their lungs, kidneys, livers, hearts, and other vital organs. Some will suffer breathing problems, strokes, or heart attacks. Some will die.   At a minimum, our state should recognize the immense risks taken by its essential workers and ensure that they will receive workers’ compensation benefits if they contract the virus. Our current workers’ compensation law obviously was drafted before the coronavirus. Because coronavirus is a quickly spreading, airborne virus, it may be difficult for workers to establish how or where they were infected by the virus and thus find it difficult to establish a claim. House Bill 1057 fixes this problem by creating a “rebuttable presumption” that an essential worker who contracts the coronavirus did so at work and thus will be more likely to be covered by our workers’ compensation system. We know there is opposition from much of the employer community, but the presumption in HB 1057 is a rebuttable one – where it is shown that an essential worker did not contract the virus at work, the worker will not be covered. HB 1057 is designed to help essential workers get the benefits they need if they become ill while still giving employers an opportunity to contest claims. HB 1057 is important not just for essential workers but for our public health and our economy.   Essential workers have put their lives on the line for the benefit of their employers, their state, and their country. During this unprecedented crisis, they should at least have assurance that they will be protected by our workers’ compensation system if they contract the coronavirus. Unfortunately, this justified and reasonable change to cover essential workers is facing fierce opposition by the following employer groups, who are lobbying state lawmakers to defeat HB 1057, and makes the need for you to send letters to your lawmakers all-the-more-urgent: Capital Associated Industries (CAI) Employers Coalition of North Carolina Independent Insurance Agents of North Carolina Insurance Federation of North Carolina North Carolina Association of Self-Insurers North Carolina Association of County Commissioners North Carolina Automobile Dealers Association North Carolina Beer and Wine Wholesalers Association North Carolina Chamber North Carolina Chamber Legal Institute North Carolina Farm Bureau Federation North Carolina Forestry Association North Carolina Healthcare Association North Carolina Home Builders Association North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities North Carolina Manufacturers Alliance North Carolina Pork Council North Carolina Petroleum and Convenience Marketers Association North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association North Carolina Retail Merchants Association North Carolina Trucking Association The Employers Association American Property Casualty Insurance Association National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies", "url": "https://actionnetwork.org/letters/workers-compensation-for-covid-19" }