[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1450 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1450

Respecting the relationship between workers' compensation benefits and 
  the benefits available under the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural 
                         Worker Protection Act.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

           September 13 (legislative day, September 7), 1993

 Mrs. Feinstein (for herself, Mr. Jeffords, Mr. Burns, Mr. Gorton, Mr. 
 Graham, Mr. Kempthorne, and Mr. Mack) introduced the following bill; 
 which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Labor and Human 
                               Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
Respecting the relationship between workers' compensation benefits and 
  the benefits available under the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural 
                         Worker Protection Act.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that--
            (1) the fundamental premise of the workers' compensation 
        system, which is the exclusivity of workers' compensation for 
        workplace injuries as an alternative to a fault-based system 
        relying on costly and lengthy litigation in the courts, must be 
        preserved,
            (2) this premise was threatened by the decision in 1990 of 
        the United States Supreme Court in Adams Fruit Co. Inc. v. 
        Barrett, 494 U.S. 638, which held that migrant and seasonal 
        farmworkers could bring a private right of action for certain 
        job-related injuries under the Migrant and Seasonal 
        Agricultural Worker Protection Act even where the employer has 
        provided workers' compensation coverage of such farmworkers,
            (3) the Adams Fruit decision did not reflect the intent of 
        the Congress when it enacted the Migrant and Seasonal 
        Agricultural Worker Protection Act in 1982,
            (4) the Adams Fruit decision single out agricultural 
        employers as the only employers in America who can be subjected 
        to lawsuits as a result of workplace injuries even where they 
        have provided workers' compensation to their employees,
            (5) Congress expressed its disapproval of the Adams Fruit 
        decision in Public Law 102-392 by overturning the decision 
        until July 6, 1993, and
            (6) it is essential that the exclusivity of workers' 
        compensation be permanently restored.

SEC. 2. ELIMINATION OF EXPIRATION.

    Section 325(c) of the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 1993 
(29 U.S.C. 1854 note) is amended to read as follows:
    ``(c) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
apply to all cases in which a final judgment has not been entered 
before October 6, 1992.''.

                                 <all>