ALBANY — Legislation that supporters say is intended to benefit injured workers is facing stiff opposition from the business community, which is arguing small businesses would be pushed to the brink by the change to a tenet of the once-heralded 2007 workers’ compensation reforms passed under former Gov. Eliot Spitzer.
If Gov. Kathy Hochul signs the bill, which passed the Senate in May and the Assembly on the final day of the legislative session, the new legislation would define “temporary total disability” as an inability to perform the job. The new legislation’s supporters say the previous law was being interpreted too narrowly.
Typically, under existing law, an employee who is found to have a total disability due to a workplace injury would get two-thirds of their weekly pay while a partial disability would lead to less than that. The new law, if signed by Hochul, would mandate that anyone having a partial disability…
