NY lawmakers aim to narrow new comp stress law

New York lawmakers will consider a bill that would effectively eliminate a 2024 law that created an avenue for workers experiencing “extraordinary work-related stress” to file for workers compensation.

S.B. 755, slated to be introduced Wednesday, would amend the existing law, which the governor signed in December 2024, to cross out “workers” and apply the provisions only to first responders including police officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, paramedics, emergency dispatchers, or “other” persons “certified to provide medical care in emergencies.”

The bill also states that such a mental injury claim would apply in cases where the first responder was covering a “work-related emergency,” eliminating broader language in the new existing law that stated the worker would have had to experience stress “at work.”