{"id":6864,"date":"2022-12-28T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-28T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/?p=6864"},"modified":"2022-12-26T18:06:08","modified_gmt":"2022-12-26T23:06:08","slug":"after-two-decades-of-advocacy-federal-firefighters-expand-federal-workers-compensation-protections-for-occupational-diseases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/2022\/12\/28\/after-two-decades-of-advocacy-federal-firefighters-expand-federal-workers-compensation-protections-for-occupational-diseases\/","title":{"rendered":"After Two Decades of Advocacy, Federal Firefighters Expand Federal Workers\u2019 Compensation Protections for Occupational Diseases"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cancer is a well-established workplace hazard for firefighters. \u00a0This is not only documented in numerous studies, it is recognized by the International Agency for Research on Cancer\u00a0 (IARC<\/a>).<\/p>\n

But despite that fact, it’s hard for federal fire fighters to get workers compensation for work-related diseases. Those diseases are especially difficult for traditional workers\u2019 compensation systems to adjudicate. Most workers\u2019 compensation systems are designed to address acute injuries (like a broken leg from falling off a ladder), but they are poorly designed to provide benefits for occupational illnesses \u2013 especially diseases that don\u2019t occur for many years after exposure. These are called \u201clatency periods\u201d and often cause complicated, unobservable illnesses, such as cancer, decades later.\u00a0 The burden then falls on the worker to prove that an injury or illness was more likely than not caused by exposures on the job many years or decades before.<\/p>\n

Governments can address that problem by passing laws or issuing regulations \u201cpresume\u201d that diseases of certain workers are caused by workplace exposure, thereby taking the burden off of the individual worker to prove work-relatedness. Even when filing a claim under a non-adversarial system, such as Federal Employees Compensation Act (FECA), only 9% of cancer claims for federal firefighters are approved, according to the House Committee Report<\/a> for the Federal Firefighters Fairness Act<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Happily, 49 of 50 states recognize cancer as a workplace hazard for firefighters. Each of these states deem certain cancers\u2014and in some cases other illnesses\u2014presumptively work-related for firefighters when determining eligibility under their workers\u2019 compensation or disability laws. \u00a0While the states vary<\/a> in benefit design and covered conditions, federal firefighters currently do not receive a presumption of causation for any occupational diseases under <\/b>FECA<\/strong><\/em>. \u00a0FECA provides workers\u2019 compensation coverage for 3 million federal civilian employees, such as postal workers, nurses, and law enforcement.<\/p>\n

Unlike most state workers compensation laws, federal firefighters currently do not receive a presumption of causation for any occupational diseases<\/em> <\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But here\u2019s some good news: That inequity between state\/local firefighters and their federal brethren was finally addressed in a section of the James M. Inhofe<\/em> National Defense Authorization Act for 2023<\/em> (H.R. 7776)<\/a> that was signed into law on December 23, 2022. \u00a0\u00a0Deep in that 4,408 page bill is the text of the Federal Firefighters Fairness Act<\/em>,<\/em> which provides that federal firefighters who were (1) employed for at least 5 years in that occupation, and (2) contracted one of 14 listed cancers, COPD, or suffered a sudden cardiac event or stroke while, or not later than 24 hours after engaging in fire protection activities, (3) shall have such condition deemed \u201cto be proximately caused by the employment of that employee\u201d for purposes of compensation under FECA.<\/p>\n

The legislation also permits the Secretary of Labor to expand the list of diseases eligible for a presumption–without requiring Congress to enact further legislation–based on the \u201cweight of the best available scientific evidence that there is a significant risk to employees in fire protection activities of developing that illness or disease.\u201d To focus these efforts, the Secretary is directed to determine within three years whether breast cancer, gynecological cancer, and rhabdomyolysis<\/a> should be included as conditions eligible for a presumption.\u00a0 The public may also petition the Secretary to add health conditions.\u00a0 DOL must inform federal firefighters submitting a FECA claim about the opportunity to participate in the NIOSH National Firefighter Registry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A Long Struggle<\/strong><\/p>\n

The effort to secure presumptive disease coverage for federal firefighters has been a project of the International Association of Fire Fighters<\/a> (IAFF) and other unions going back to 2001 when the Federal Firefighters Fairness Act<\/em> was first introduced.\u00a0 IAFF represents many of the firefighters at stationary facilities, such as defense installations, whereas AFGE represents many of the federal firefighters employed by natural resource agencies such as the Forest Service. \u00a0Since 2001 legislation has been reintroduced in every Congress,<\/a> but aside from a sporadic hearing or effort to tack it on other legislation, there had not been a clear-cut pathway to enactment in the past two decades.<\/p>\n

This was true for several reasons.\u00a0 One, it has been more than a decade since the planets aligned to provide firefighters with a motivated House and Senate under Democratic control and a President pushing to enact the legislation.<\/p>\n

A second, more technical reason is that the proponents lacked a way to pay for the bill, because this provision involves \u201cmandatory spending,\u201d a complicated procedural term that means that Congress is required to identify \u201cpay for\u201d or an \u201coffset\u201d for the cost of the legislation.<\/p>\n

In 2022, these planets aligned, bolstered by greater visibility of firefighters battling ever more destructive wildland fires, and a hearty bipartisan effort by IAFF and other unions:<\/p>\n