News from New York State Department of Labor

For more information contact: Leo Rosales 518-457-5519

Worker Protection Task Force Makes Recommendations on 9/11 Disabilities

ALBANY, NY (03/04/2008; 1326)(readMedia)-- State Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith announced today that the 9/11 Worker Protection Task Force has issued an Interim Report outlining their recommendations for evaluating disabilities related to the attack on the World Trade Center (WTC). The recommendations follow a year of testimony and evaluation of evidence relating to the terrorist attack and its aftermath.

The 9/11 Worker Protection Task Force was created to assure that public employees who participated in rescue, recovery and cleanup operations and sustained injuries or illnesses directly related to the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center would be eligible for accidental disability benefits if their injuries or illnesses prevented the safe performance of their essential job duties.

The 19-member Task Force includes appointees from the Governor, the Senate Majority Leader and the Speaker of the Assembly (who are among representatives of WTC worker organizations), and physicians with backgrounds in Occupational Medicine and/or WTC-related illnesses. Also included are the state and city comptrollers, the Mayor of New York City, and senior representatives of the State Departments of Labor, Health, Civil Service and Budget.

During its review the Task Force has found that there are severe health impacts suffered by responders, that the pension and disability systems may not be configured properly to deal fairly with these after-effects and that there may be a need for legislative amendments.

The recommendations of the Task Force address expanding the eligibility criteria for public employees to:

• eliminate the requirement for pre-employment physicals,
• include injured workers whose exposures were limited to the first hours of the attack,
• include workers who suffered significant exposure-related health effects but whose work locations were not within the statutory boundaries for WTC sites,
• allow workers who have retired or who are on non-WTC-related disability to file for WTC-related disability benefits if they otherwise qualify,
• include law enforcement officers from outside New York City who were deployed to the WTC sites, and
• acknowledge the extended time limit for workers’ compensation claims by allowing workers who became disabled after 9/11/03 (the prior time limit for filing a workers’ compensation claim) an opportunity to file.

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