40 ILCS 5/3-114.6

Current through Public Act 103-1052

Section 40 ILCS 5/3-114.6 - Occupational disease disability pension

(a) This Section applies only to police officers who are employed by a municipality with a combined police and fire department and who have regular firefighting duties in addition to their law enforcement duties.

(b) The General Assembly finds that service in a police department that also has firefighting duties requires officers to perform unusual tasks in times of stress and danger; that officers are subject to exposure to extreme heat or extreme cold in certain seasons while performing their duties; that they are required to work in the midst of and are subject to heavy smoke fumes and carcinogenic, poisonous, toxic, or chemical gases from fires; and that these conditions exist and arise out of or in the course of employment.

(c) An active officer with 5 or more years of creditable service who is found to be unable to perform his or her duties in the department by reason of heart disease, stroke, tuberculosis, or any disease of the lungs or respiratory tract, resulting from service as an officer, is entitled to an occupational disease disability pension during any period of such disability for which he or she has no right to receive salary.

An active officer who has completed 5 or more years of service and is unable to perform his or her duties in the department by reason of a disabling cancer, which develops or manifests itself during a period while the officer is in the service of the department, is entitled to receive an occupational disease disability benefit during any period of such disability for which he or she does not have a right to receive salary. In order to receive this occupational disease disability benefit, (i) the cancer must be of a type that may be caused by exposure to heat, radiation, or a known carcinogen as defined by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and (ii) the cancer must (and is rebuttably presumed to) arise as a result of service as an officer.

An officer who, after the effective date of this amendatory Act of 1998, enters the service of a combined police and fire department and has regular firefighting duties shall be examined by one or more practicing physicians appointed by the board. If the examination discloses impairment of the heart, lungs, or respiratory tract, or the existence of cancer, the officer shall not be entitled to an occupational disease disability pension under this Section unless and until a subsequent examination reveals no such impairment or cancer.

The occupational disease disability pension shall be equal to the greater of 65% of the salary attached to the rank held by the officer at the time of his or her removal from the municipality's department payroll or (2) the retirement pension that the police officer would be eligible to receive if he or she retired (but not including any automatic annual increase in that retirement pension).

The occupational disease disability pension is payable to the officer during the period of the disability. If the disability ceases before the death of the officer, the disability pension payable under this Section shall also cease and the officer thereafter shall receive such pension benefits as are provided in accordance with other provisions of this Article.

If an officer dies while still disabled and receiving a disability pension under this Section, the disability pension shall continue to be paid to the officer's survivors in the sequence provided in Section 3-112.

40 ILCS 5/3-114.6

P.A. 90-766, eff. 8/14/1998; 91-939, eff. 2/1/2001.