S 2537: Relates to eligibility for classification as permanent total disability; includes inability to perform the full range of sedentary work or approval for federal social security disability benefits as a result of a compensable accident or occupational disease as constituting permanent total disability.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 2537 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE January 21, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sens. RAMOS, BRISPORT, JACKSON, MAYER -- 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 eligibil- ity for classification as permanent total disability The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 15 of the workers' compensation 2 law, as amended by chapter 675 of the laws of 1977, is amended to read 3 as follows: 4 1. Permanent total disability. In case of total disability adjudged to 5 be permanent sixty-six and two-thirds per centum of the average weekly 6 wages shall be paid to the employee during the continuance of such total 7 disability. Loss of both hands, or both arms, or both feet, or both 8 legs, or both eyes, or of any two thereof, or inability to perform the 9 full range of sedentary work, or approval for federal social security 10 disability benefits as a result of a compensable accident or occupa- 11 tional disease shall, in the absence of conclusive proof to the contra- 12 ry, constitute permanent total disability. In all other cases permanent 13 total disability shall be determined in accordance with the facts. 14 Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, an injured employee 15 disabled due to the loss or total loss of use of both eyes, or both 16 hands, or both arms, or both feet, or both legs, or of any two thereof 17 shall not suffer any diminution of [his] such employee's compensation by 18 engaging in business or employment provided [his] such employee's earn- 19 ings or wages, when combined with [his] such employee's compensation, 20 shall not be in excess of the wage base on which the maximum weekly 21 compensation benefit is computed under the law in effect at time of such 22 earning; further provided, that if the combination exceeds such wage 23 base, the compensation shall be diminished to an amount which, together 24 with [his] such employee's earnings or wages, shall equal the wage base; EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD06065-01-5 
 S. 2537 2 1 and further provided that the application of this subdivision shall not 2 result in reduction of compensation which an injured employee who is 3 disabled due to the loss or total loss of use of both eyes, or both 4 hands, or both arms, or both feet, or both legs or of any two thereof, 5 would otherwise be entitled to under any other provision of this 6 section. For the purposes of this section, inability to perform the 7 full range of sedentary work shall mean the inability to exert up to ten 8 pounds of force occasionally or up to one-third of the workday, or the 9 inability to exert a negligible amount of force frequently to lift, 10 carry, push, pull, or otherwise move objects, including the home body, 11 and examples of the inability to perform the full range of sedentary 12 work shall include but not be limited to the inability to sit for at 13 least six hours in an eight-hour day and occasionally walk or stand for 14 no more than two hours in an eight-hour day. In circumstances where the 15 inability to perform the full range of sedentary work involves the 16 performance of unskilled sedentary work, related activities of a non-e- 17 xertional nature such as seeing, hand-manipulation, and understanding, 18 remembering, and carrying out simple instructions shall be considered. 19 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to inju- 20 ries subject to the provisions of the workers' compensation law arising 21 on and after the effective date of this act.