PRINTER'S NO. 3408
No. 2415 Session of 2004
INTRODUCED BY VEON, BELFANTI, DeWEESE, SOLOBAY, FABRIZIO, MANN,
LaGROTTA, GEORGE, SHANER, LAUGHLIN, BEBKO-JONES, WASHINGTON,
CASORIO, GRUCELA, GOODMAN, YUDICHAK, TANGRETTI, WALKO,
YOUNGBLOOD, FREEMAN, LEACH, LEVDANSKY, KELLER AND CURRY,
MARCH 15, 2004
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON LABOR RELATIONS, MARCH 15, 2004
AN ACT
1 Amending the act of June 2, 1915 (P.L.736, No.338), entitled, as
2 reenacted and amended, "An act defining the liability of an
3 employer to pay damages for injuries received by an employe
4 in the course of employment; establishing an elective
5 schedule of compensation; providing procedure for the
6 determination of liability and compensation thereunder; and
7 prescribing penalties," further providing for injuries
8 subject to compensation.
9 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
10 hereby enacts as follows:
11 Section 1. Section 301(c) of the act of June 2, 1915
12 (P.L.736, No.338), known as the Workers' Compensation Act,
13 reenacted and amended June 21, 1939 (P.L.520, No.281), and
14 amended December 5, 1974 (P.L.782, No.263) and July 2, 1993
15 (P.L.190, No.44), is amended to read:
16 Section 301. * * *
17 (c) (1) The terms "injury" and "personal injury," as used
18 in this act, shall be construed to mean an injury to an employe,
19 regardless of his previous physical condition, arising in the
1 course of his employment and related thereto, and such disease
2 or infection as naturally results from the injury or is
3 aggravated, reactivated or accelerated by the injury; and
4 wherever death is mentioned as a cause for compensation under
5 this act, it shall mean only death resulting from such injury
6 and its resultant effects, and occurring within three hundred
7 weeks after the injury. The term "injury arising in the course
8 of his employment," as used in this article, shall not include
9 an injury caused by an act of a third person intended to injure
10 the employe because of reasons personal to him, and not directed
11 against him as an employe or because of his employment; nor
12 shall it include injuries sustained while the employe is
13 operating a motor vehicle provided by the employer if the
14 employe is not otherwise in the course of employment at the time
15 of injury; but shall include all other injuries sustained while
16 the employe is actually engaged in the furtherance of the
17 business or affairs of the employer, whether upon the employer's
18 premises or elsewhere, shall include all injuries sustained
19 while the employe is engaged in strike activity at or in the
20 vicinity of the employer's premises, and shall include all
21 injuries caused by the condition of the premises or by the
22 operation of the employer's business or affairs thereon,
23 sustained by the employe, who, though not so engaged, is injured
24 upon the premises occupied by or under the control of the
25 employer, or upon which the employer's business or affairs are
26 being carried on, the employe's presence thereon being required
27 by the nature of his employment.
28 (2) The terms "injury," "personal injury," and "injury
29 arising in the course of his employment," as used in this act,
30 shall include, unless the context clearly requires otherwise,
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1 occupational disease as defined in section 108 of this act:
2 Provided, That whenever occupational disease is the basis for
3 compensation, for disability or death under this act, it shall
4 apply only to disability or death resulting from such disease
5 and occurring within three hundred weeks after the last date of
6 employment in an occupation or industry to which he was exposed
7 to hazards of such disease: And provided further, That if the
8 employe's compensable disability has occurred within such
9 period, his subsequent death as a result of the disease shall
10 likewise be compensable. The provisions of this paragraph (2)
11 shall apply only with respect to the disability or death of an
12 employe which results in whole or in part from the employe's
13 exposure to the hazard of occupational disease after June 30,
14 1973 in employment covered by The Pennsylvania Workmen's
15 Compensation Act. The employer liable for compensation provided
16 by section 305.1 or section 108, subsections (k), (l), (m), (o),
17 (p) or (q), shall be the employer in whose employment the
18 employe was last exposed for a period of not less than one year
19 to the hazard of the occupational disease claimed. In the event
20 the employe did not work in an exposure at least one year for
21 any employer during the three hundred week period prior to
22 disability or death, the employer liable for the compensation
23 shall be that employer giving the longest period of employment
24 in which the employe was exposed to the hazards of the disease
25 claimed.
26 * * *
27 Section 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
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