California Nurses Battered by Covid Seek Workers’ Comp Equity

California registered nurse Rosa Villarroel injured her back moving equipment in her hospital’s operating room in 2021, returned after two weeks to modified duty, and almost immediately got Covid-19. She was bedridden for five days, out for two weeks, and still had to wait two months for her employer to approve paperwork the occupational health doctor submitted to get her treatment.

Villarroel’s employer would have to make it easier for frontline hospital workers like her to access the state’s workers’ compensation benefits system under a bill pending in the California Legislature. The labor-backed bill could annually cost hospitals in the ...