WCIRB Summarizes 2024 California Workers’ Comp Legislation

The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau is giving its take on bills passed and passed on by California Legislature this year.

The Legislature recessed for the year and Gov. Gavin Newsom had until Sept. 30 to sign or veto any bills. The WCIRB analysis includes passed legislation and bills that were vetoed.

The following bills were signed by the Newsom and become law effective Jan. 1, 2025 (except for Assembly Bill 171, which the Governor signed and became effective on July 2, 2024):

Assembly Bill 171

The bill deems a petition for reconsideration to have been denied by the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board unless it is acted upon by the WCAB within 60 days from the date a trial judge transmits a case to the WCAB until July 1, 2026. The bill also requires a trial judge, when it transmits a case to the WCAB, to provide notice to the parties of the case and the WCAB.

Assembly Bill 1239

The bill extends the authorization to deposit workers’ comp indemnity payments in a prepaid card account until January 1, 2027.

Assembly Bill 1870

Employers are required to post a notice in a prominent place that includes information regarding to whom injuries should be reported, the rights of an employee to select and change a treating physician and certain employee protections against discrimination. It also requires the notice to include information about an injured employee’s ability to consult a licensed attorney to advise them of their rights under workers’ compensations laws.

Assembly Bill 2337

The bill allows all documents that require a signature for workers’ comp purposes to be filed with an electronic signature.

Senate Bill 1455

This bill extends the sunset date for the Contractors State License Board from Jan. 1, 2025 to Jan. 1, 2029. SB 216, passed in 2022, required contractors with certain license types to have workers’ comp insurance unless they have no employees and file a certification of exemption with the CSLB. This bill extends the deadline for applicants and licensees to comply with the SB 216 requirement from Jan. 1, 2026 to January 2028. The bill also requires the CSLB to establish a process and procedure to verify that applicants or licensees without an employee or employees are eligible for exemption from the workers’ comp requirement.

Newsom vetoed the following bills:

Senate Bill 636

Existing law requires every employer to establish a medical treatment utilization review process. This bill would have required the physician conducting medical treatment utilization review to be licensed by California state law.

Senate Bill 1299

The bill would have created a disputable presumption that a heat-related injury that develops within a specified timeframe after working outdoors for an employer in the agriculture industry that fails to comply with heat illness prevention standards arose out of and came in the course of employment. The bill would have also required the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board to find in favor of the employee if the employer fails to rebut the presumption. The bill specified that compensation awarded for heat-related injury to farmworkers was to include, among other things, medical treatment and disability.