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Notice of Change in California Labor Code

November 20, 2017

 

SB 189 – Notice of Change in California Labor Code: Definition of employee Workers’ Compensation Waivers for Excluded Officers, Directors, Partners, Managing Members

You may be aware that Assembly Bill (AB) 2883 made changes to the California Labor Code effective January 1, 2017 by requiring eligible corporate officers and directors, managing members of Limited Liability Companies, and general partners of partnerships who wished to exclude themselves from workers compensation insurance to sign waiver forms to do so. Additionally, AB 2883 required carriers to apply those exclusions effective the date the carrier received and accepted the completed and signed waiver forms. Therefore, backdating of exclusions was prohibited.

Senate Bill (SB) 189 was recently passed with changes that permit carriers to backdate any exclusions to January 1, 2017, provided they receive the waiver on or before December 31, 2017. While SB 189 does not mandate carriers accept backdated waivers, AF Group will allow policyholders to do so.

Please review below to see how this change will impact you and your policy.

You Did Submit a Waiver Form in 2017

If you submitted an accepted waiver form in 2017, but your policy was endorsed with an exclusion effective date after the policy’s inception date, and you would like us to amend your policy by changing the exclusion effective date to January 1, 2017 (or the policy inception date, whichever is later) and revise any final audits that may have been completed, please contact your agent and have them make a written request to us. Please note that changes to the policy may not result in return premium if a credit was applied during the 90-day transitional period.

You Did Not Submit a Waiver Form in 2017

If you are eligible for exclusion under the current California Labor Code as changed by AB 2883, and you wish to be excluded under any applicable workers’ compensation policy issued by us, you will need to provide us with a completed and signed waiver form on or before December 31, 2017. If we receive your completed and signed waiver form by December 31, 2017, we will endorse any applicable policy with an exclusion effective date of January 1, 2017 (or the policy inception date, whichever is later) and revise any final audits that may have been completed.

The following individuals qualify to elect exclusion from workers’ compensation under current guidelines:

Corporation

Officers or members of board of directors of a quasi-public or private corporation who own at least 15 percent (15%) of the issued and outstanding stock of the corporation

Partnership

General Partners

Limited Liability Company (LLC)

Managing Members

Policyholders will receive copies of our waiver forms by mail, and they can also be accessed at the bottom of this page. As a reminder, only one person requesting exclusion can sign per form.

You may submit waivers to us in one of the following ways:

Email

[email protected]

Regular Mail

P.O. Box 40790

Lansing, MI  48901-7990

If you have any questions, please contact your agent or our Customer Service line at 866-206-5851.

SB 189 made additional changes to the California Labor Code regarding exclusion eligibility that will not be effective until July 1, 2018. We will send communication to you regarding those changes at a later date.

Download the Waivers

CA-General Partner or Managing Member (LLC) Waiver-ed 01-17

CA-Corporate Officer or Director Waiver-ed 01-17