Report Title:
Workers' Compensation; Injuries Covered and Excluded
Description:
Clarifies the types of injuries excluded from workers' compensation by adding specific language. Further clarifies exclusion for metal disorder, including mental distress with limited exceptions.
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THE SENATE |
S.B. NO. |
573 |
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TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating to workers' compensation.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. Section 386-3, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"§386-3 Injuries covered. (a) If an employee suffers personal injury either by accident arising out of and in the course of the employment or by disease proximately caused by or resulting from the nature of the employment, the employee's employer or the special compensation fund shall pay compensation to the employee or the employee's dependents as provided in this chapter.
Accident arising out of and in the course of the employment includes the wilful act of a third person directed against an employee because of the employee's employment.
[(b) No compensation shall be allowed for an injury incurred by an employee by the employee's wilful intention to injure oneself or another by actively engaging in any unprovoked non-work related physical altercation other than in self defense, or by the employee's intoxication.
(c) A claim for mental stress resulting solely from disciplinary action taken in good faith by the employer shall not be allowed; provided that if a collective bargaining agreement or other employment agreement specifies a different standard than good faith for disciplinary actions, the standards set in the collective bargaining agreement or other employment agreement shall be applied in lieu of the good faith standard. For purposes of this subsection, the standards set in the collective bargaining agreement or other employment agreement shall be applied in any proceeding before the department, the appellate board, and the appellate courts.]
(b) Notwithstanding subsection (a), no compensation shall be allowed for an injury or disease incurred by an employee as a result of the employee's:
(1) Wilful intention to injure the employee's self or another;
(2) Consumption of alcoholic beverages or unlawful consumption of any drug or controlled substance, unless the employer permitted or had actual knowledge of the consumption. For purposes of this section, "controlled substance" has the same meaning as defined in section 329-1;
(3) Active participation in an assault or combat that is not a function of the employee's job assignment and amounts to a deviation from customary duties, unless the employee did not initiate the assault or combat and the employee's participation was limited to reasonable efforts to defend oneself or another;
(4) Voluntary participation in any recreational or social activity off the work premises solely for the employee's personal pleasure, including, but not limited to, employer-sponsored sporting events, team activities, parties, and picnics; or
(5) Mental disorder, including mental stress, unless the employment conditions that produced the mental disorder were conditions other than conditions generally inherent in every working situation, including personnel actions relating to discipline, correction of job performance, or cessation of employment or promotion, in which case clear and convincing evidence shall be required to establish that actual events of employment comprised not less than fifty per cent of all combined causes of the mental disorder."
SECTION 2. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.
SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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