Michigan considers amending comp laws on disability, death

Michigan lawmakers are set to consider changes to death benefits for spouses of workers killed on the job and whether an injured worker who is fired can still collect disability.

A pair of bills, introduced Thursday, would make several changes to the language in the state’s workers compensation laws.

Among them, S.B. 1079 would add language that states “if an employee, after being employed… for less than 100 weeks, loses the employee’s job, the employee’s personal injury is conclusively presumed to result in disability connected to wage loss, unless the employee’s employer establishes that the employee’s willful and serious misconduct resulted in the termination of the employee’s employment.”

S.B. 1080 would add language that death benefits are awarded if “the employee’s spouse who is living with the employee at the time of death is conclusively presumed to be wholly dependent on the employee’s earnings for support for a period of 208 weeks after the date of death.”

After the 208-week period, “continuing dependency, in whole or in part, is determined in accordance with the facts at the time of the injury. If the spouse is determined to be partially dependent on the employee’s earnings for support at the time of the injury, the weekly compensation rate must be calculated in accordance with (existing state law)” and “if the spouse establishes an entitlement to ongoing weekly compensation payments, payments must be made for a period of 500 weeks from the date of death.”

Both proposals were sent to the Committee on Labor.