It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:

SECTION 1. Section 28-29-2 of the General Laws in Chapter 28-29 entitled "Workers' Compensation -- General Provisions" is hereby amended to read as follows:

{ADD 28-29-2. Definitions. -- ADD} In chapters 29-38, inclusive, of this title, unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) "Employer" shall include any person, co-partnership, corporation or voluntary association, and the legal representative of a deceased employer; it shall include the state, and the City of Providence. It shall include also each city, town, and regional school district therein that shall vote or accept the provisions of chapters 29-38, inclusive, of this title in the manner herein provided.

(2) "Employee" means any person who has entered into the employment of or works under contract of service or apprenticeship with any employer, except that in the case of a city or town other than the City of Providence it shall only mean those class or classes of employees as may be designated by a city, town, or regional school district in the manner herein provided to receive compensation under chapters 29-38 inclusive, of this title. It shall not include any partner or sole proprietor, or a person whose employment is of a casual nature and who is employed otherwise than for the purpose of the employer's trade or business, or a person whose services are voluntary or who performs charitable acts, nor shall it include the members of the regularly organized fire and police departments of any town or city; and whenever a contractor has contracted with the state, a city, town, or regional school district any person employed by that contractor in work under contract shall not be deemed an employee of the state, city, town or regional school district as the case may be. In the case of a person whose services are voluntary or who performs charitable acts, any benefit received, in the form of monetary remuneration or otherwise, shall be reportable to the appropriate taxation authority but shall not be deemed to be wages earned under contract of hire for purposes of qualifying for benefits under chapters 29-38, inclusive, of this title. Any reference to an employee who had been injured shall, where the employee is dead, include a reference to his or her dependents as hereinafter defined, or to his or her legal representatives, or, where he or she is a minor or incompetent, to his or her conservator or guardian. A "seasonal occupation" means those occupations in which work is performed on a seasonal basis of not more than sixteen (16) weeks.

(3) "General or special employer":

(A) A general employer shall include but shall not be limited to temporary help companies and employee leasing companies and shall mean a person who for consideration and as the regular course of its business supplies an employee with or without vehicle to another person.

(B) A special employer shall mean a person who contracts for services with a general employer for the use of an employee, a vehicle or both.

(C) Whenever there be a general employer and special employer wherein the general employer supplies to the special employer an employee and the general employer pays or is obligated to pay the wages or salaries of such supplied employee, then and in that event notwithstanding the fact that direction and control shall be in the special employer and not the general employer, the general employer if it be subject to the provisions of the workers' compensation act or has accepted the same, shall be deemed to be the employer as set forth in subdivision (1) of this section and both the general and special employer shall be the employer for purposes of sections 28-29-17 and 28-29-18.

(4)(A) "Injury" means and refers to personal injury to an employee arising out of and in the course of his or her employment connected therewith and referable thereto.

(B) An injury to an employee while voluntarily participating in a private, group or employer sponsored carpool, vanpool, commuter bus service or other rideshare program, having as its sole purpose the mass transportation of employees to and from work shall not be deemed to have arisen out of and in the course of employment. Nothing in the foregoing shall be held to deny benefits under chapters 29-38, inclusive, and chapter 47 of this title, to employees such as drivers, mechanics and others who receive remuneration for their participation in the rideshare program. Provided, however, that the foregoing shall not bar the right of an employee to recover against an employer and/or driver for tortious misconduct.

(5) "Physician" shall mean medical doctor, surgeon, dentist, {ADD licensed psychologist, ADD} chiropractor, osteopath, podiatrist and optometrist, as the case may be.

(6)(A) "Earnings capacity" means the weekly straight time earnings which an employee could receive if the employee accepted an actual offer of suitable alternative employment. Earnings capacity can also be established by the court based on evidence of ability to earn, including, but not limited to, a determination of the degree of functional impairment and/or disability, that an employee is capable of employment. The court may, in its discretion, take into consideration the performance of the employee's duty to actively seek employment in scheduling the implementation of the reduction. The employer need not identify particular employment before the court can direct an earnings capacity adjustment.

(B) As used under the provisions of this title, the term "functional impairment" means an anatomical or functional abnormality existing after the date of maximum medical improvement as determined by a medically or scientifically demonstrable finding and based upon the most recent edition of the American Medical Association's Guide to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment or comparable publications of the American Medical Association.

(7) "Suitable alternative employment" means employment, or an actual offer of employment which the employee is physically able to perform and will not exacerbate the employee's health condition and which bears a reasonable relationship to the employee's qualifications, background, education and training. The employee's age alone shall not be considered in determining the suitableness of the alternative employment.

(8) "Director" means the director of labor or his or her designee unless specifically stated otherwise.

(9) "Department" means the department of labor.

(10) "Maximum medical improvement" means a point in time when any medically determinable physical or mental impairment as a result of injury has become stable and when no further treatment is reasonably expected to materially improve the condition. Neither the need for future medical maintenance nor the possibility of improvement or deterioration resulting from the passage of time and not from the ordinary course of the disabling condition, nor the continuation of a pre-existing condition shall preclude a finding of maximum medical improvement. A finding of maximum medical improvement by the workers' compensation court may be reviewed only where it is established that an employee's condition has substantially deteriorated or improved.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.