Enacts the "Joseph Fletcher act"; permits certain claims by essential employees for compensation based on death due to COVID-19 which were previously denied or not timely filed.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6078
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
March 5, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sens. PARKER, FERNANDEZ, HELMING, JACKSON, RHOADS, ROLISON
-- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to
the Committee on Labor
AN ACT to amend the workers' compensation law, in relation to certain
claims for death benefits based on death due to COVID-19 in memory of
Joseph Fletcher; and providing for the repeal of such provisions upon
the expiration thereof
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as
2 the "Joseph Fletcher act".
3 § 2. The workers' compensation law is amended by adding a new section
4 3-a to read as follows:
5 § 3-a. Reopening of claims for COVID-19 death benefits. 1. A claim for
6 death benefits based on a diagnosis of COVID-19 resulting in the death
7 of the essential employee whose exposure was sustained in service as an
8 essential worker as defined by executive order 202 issued March seventh,
9 two thousand twenty and expired June twenty-fourth, two thousand twen-
10 ty-one shall not be disallowed as barred by section eighteen or section
11 twenty-eight of this chapter if such claim is filed within one year of
12 the effective date of this section. Any subsequent claims may be filed
13 after such period in accordance with sections eighteen and twenty-eight
14 of this chapter.
15 2. The board shall permit the filing of claims for death benefits due
16 to COVID-19 which were previously denied due to section eighteen or
17 twenty-eight of this chapter prior to the effective date of this
18 section, and shall, upon application, re-hear and determine such claims.
19 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately and shall expire and be
20 deemed repealed two years after such date.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01700-01-5
