SB 550

This bill makes various changes to the worker's compensation law, as

administered by the Department of Workforce Development (DWD).

General coverage

Local governmental units

Under current law, each county, city, town, village, school district, sewer

district, drainage district, long-term care district, and other public or quasi-public

corporation (municipality) is liable for worker's compensation when an employee in

the service of the municipality, whether elected, appointed, or under a contract of

hire, is injured while performing services growing out of and incidental to his or her

employment.

This bill changes the term "municipality" to "local governmental unit" for

purposes of the worker's compensation law and redefines that term to mean a

political subdivision of this state; a special purpose district or taxing jurisdiction in

this state; an instrumentality, corporation, combination, or subunit of any of the

foregoing; or any other public or quasi-public corporation. Under current law, cities,

villages, towns, and counties are political subdivisions of this state; special purpose

districts include school districts, sewer districts, drainage districts, long-term care

districts, and other districts created for special purposes; and taxing jurisdictions are

entities, not including the state, that are authorized by law to levy property taxes.

Postsecondary students participating in work study programs

Currently, a student of a public school or a private school, while he or she is

engaged in performing services as part of a school work training, work experience,

or work study program, who is not on the payroll of an employer that is providing the

work training or work experience or who is not otherwise receiving compensation on

which a worker's compensation carrier could assess premiums on that employer, is

an employee of a school district or private school that elects to name the student as

an employee for purposes of worker's compensation coverage. Also, under current

law, a student who is named as an employee of a school district or private school for

purposes of worker's compensation coverage and who makes a claim for worker's

compensation against his or her school district or private school may not also make

a claim for worker's compensation or maintain an action in tort against the employer

that provided the work training or work experience from which the claim arose.

This bill extends those provisions to a student of an institution within the

University of Wisconsin System, a technical college, a tribally controlled college

controlled by an Indian tribe that has elected to become subject to the worker's

compensation law, a school approved by the Educational Approval Board, or a

private, nonprofit institution of higher education located in this state (institution of

higher education). Specifically, under the bill, a student of an institution of higher

education, while he or she is engaged in performing services as part of a school work

training, work experience, or work study program, who is not on the payroll of an