{"id":148654,"date":"2026-04-14T21:38:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T01:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=148654"},"modified":"2026-04-14T21:38:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T01:38:37","slug":"house-votes-to-provide-workers-comp-to-volunteer-firefighters-ambulance-corps-members-injured-during-fundraising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=148654","title":{"rendered":"House votes to provide workers\u2019 comp to volunteer firefighters,  ambulance corps members injured during fundraising"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>HARRISBURG, April 14 \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Volunteers who are injured while organizing or engaging in fundraising activities with volunteer fire departments and volunteer ambulance corps would be provided workers\u2019 compensation coverage under legislation passed by the state House of Representatives, according to prime sponsor Rep. Robert Freeman.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWithout fundraising, many of our volunteer fire departments and ambulance corps would struggle to perform their lifesaving services for their communities. These volunteers shouldn\u2019t have to worry about how they\u2019ll support themselves and their families because they were injured while trying to support their community,\u201d said Freeman, D-Northampton.<\/p>\n<p>The Workers&#8217; Compensation Act provides benefits to employees who are injured or become ill due to their job duties. It covers medical expenses and lost wages for workers who are unable to return to work due to a work-related injury or illness.<\/p>\n<p>The act defines the liability of an employer to pay damages for injuries received by an employee, or volunteer, in the course of employment. Volunteers of fire departments and ambulance corps who are engaged in fundraising activities are not currently protected under the act.<\/p>\n<p>The legislation is supported by the PA State Association of Boroughs, and PA State Association of Township Supervisors.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.palegis.us\/legislation\/bills\/text\/HTM\/2025\/0\/HB2087\/PN2684\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.palegis.us\/legislation\/bills\/text\/HTM\/2025\/0\/HB2087\/PN2684&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1776293695069000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3J10bjF7_nsSaqJ5KMPoxx\">House Bill 2087<\/a>, which passed 199-2, heads to the state Senate for consideration.<\/p>\n<p>Information provided to TVL by:<br \/>\nTom Andrews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HARRISBURG, April 14 \u2013\u00a0Volunteers who are injured while organizing or engaging in fundraising activities with volunteer fire departments and volunteer ambulance corps would be provided workers\u2019 compensation coverage under legislation &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=148654\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">House votes to provide workers\u2019 comp to volunteer firefighters,  ambulance corps members injured during fundraising<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115768,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-148654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/HARRISBURG-copy.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148654"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=148654"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148655,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148654\/revisions\/148655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/115768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=148654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=148654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=148654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}