The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Arkansas
- Level
- State
- Authority
- Ark. Code Ann. 12-75-101 et seq.; public health emergency declared by EO 20-03 and extended by EO 20-25
- Issued
- 2020-06-15 June 15, 2020
- Effective
- 2020-06-15 (applies to claims filed after execution; incorporated in EO 20-37 and every renewal) (read as 2020-06-15)
- End
- 2021-05-30 (expires with the emergency; par. 6) (read as 2021-05-30)
- In force
- June 15, 2020 to May 30, 2021
- Quarters
- 2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q2
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Workplace rulesOperating condition
- Addressees
- Character
- workplace duty
- Collection
- Standing duties: Arkansas DUT-AR
Operative words
For the purposes of defining "occupational disease" as used in the Workers' Compensation Law, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)... shall be established as an occupational disease... (5) Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)... shall be an exception to the prohibition in Ark. Code Ann. 11-9-601(e)(3) on compensation for ordinary diseases of life to which the general public is exposed.
Penalty
None (defines compensability under the Workers' Compensation Law, 11-9-101 et seq.)
What it required
Made COVID-19 contracted in the course of employment a compensable occupational disease for every Arkansas employer for the life of the emergency, removed the 'ordinary disease of life' bar, and provided that requiring an employee to work with knowledge of possible or likely exposure 'is not intentional conduct that would remove the employer from the protections of the Workers' Compensation Law' (par. 2), so that workplace transmission became an insured employer liability whose management the workplace protocols served.
Retrieval noteScanned PDF; read by Windows OCR of the exhibit (two pages). Recital: 'It is essential to the economic and financial stability of the State of Arkansas during this emergency for businesses in the state to reopen or to remain open... without the threat of civil liability related to COVID-19.' Incorporated by reference in EO 20-37 (Ex. AR-007) and EO 21-03 (Ex. AR-014).