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Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order Wednesday that will make it easier for essential workers who contract COVID-19 to obtain workers’ compensations benefits in a win for labor unions that called for the change.

The order streamlines workers’ compensation claims and establishes a rebuttable presumption that any essential workers infected with COVID-19 contracted the virus on the job, Newsom said. In effect, the change shifts the burden of proof that typically falls on workers and instead requires companies or insurers to prove that the employees didn’t get sick at work.

“This workers comp presumption is so important, because we want people to feel confident, comfortable, they’ll have their benefits,” Newsom said. “The whole idea is, as we move into this second phase, we want to keep workers healthy and keep them safe.”

The California Federation of Labor, which asked for the change in a March 27 letter to the governor and legislative leaders, applauded the governor’s decision on Wednesday.

“Gov. Newsom’s order today adds a vital layer of protection to essential workers putting their lives at risk to provide for our families during this pandemic,” Art Pulaski, the federation’s executive secretary-treasurer, said in a statement. “We commend the governor for taking action to ensure workers on the front lines of this crisis are able to access healthcare and other benefits from workers’ compensation without costly delays that could acutely endanger their health and safety.”

In the absence of changes, workers’ compensation claims stemming from COVID-19 could be difficult to prove, considering how easily the virus spreads.

Dozens of business groups, led by the California Chamber of Commerce, pushed back last month on the labor federation’s request for a revision to the rules and other changes. Employers said the changes would force businesses to be the “safety net to mitigate the unprecedented outcomes of this natural disaster and the government’s response.”

“Many businesses and their owners are casualties of the necessary economic shutdown,” the business groups wrote in an April 7 letter. “They cannot be expected to shoulder a new employer-financed social safety net, with expensive new mandates, at precisely the moment when small businesses are shuttering, employee hours are cut, and uncertainty about the future is the new normal.”

Some of California’s largest workers’ compensation insurers have already removed requirements that essential workers with COVID-19 prove they contracted the virus on the job.

Under the existing workers’ compensation system, workers who are injured on the job can qualify for medical care paid for by an employer, temporary disability benefits, permanent disability benefits, supplemental job displacement benefits and death benefits.

California employers are required to provide workers’ compensation, either through an outside insurance policy or self-insurance.

Newsom’s change covers all claims filed for the next 60 days from the date of the announcement and is retroactive to claims filed as early as March 19.