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Architects and engineers urge law change to extend workers’‑comp protections for disaster volunteers

2322168 · February 4, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Witnesses testified in support of House Bill 5155, a proposal to treat volunteer architects and engineers who respond to declared disasters as state employees for certain protections such as workers’ compensation; supporters said the change would restore volunteer capacity and avoid ‘standing down’ responders.

Representative Carter introduced House Bill 5155, which would clarify that architects and related professionals who volunteer during declared disasters are treated as state employees for certain protections, chiefly workers’ compensation and death benefits.

Kenneth Folarski, president of the Rhode Island Architects and Engineers Emergency Response Task Force, said the task force is currently "standing down" because an attorney-general opinion…

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