Sec. 1. 39-A MRSA §104, first ¶, as amended by PL 1995, c. 297, §1, is further amended to read:

An Except as provided in section 104-A, an employer who has secured the payment of compensation in conformity with sections 401 to 407 is exempt from civil actions, either at common law or under sections 901 to 908; Title 14, sections 8101 to 8118; and Title 18-A, section 2-804, involving personal injuries sustained by an employee arising out of and in the course of employment, or for death resulting from those injuries. An employer that uses a private employment agency for temporary help services is entitled to the same immunity from civil actions by employees of the temporary help service as is granted with respect to the employer's own employees as long as the temporary help service has secured the payment of compensation in conformity with sections 401 to 407. "Temporary help services" means a service where an agency assigns its own employees to a 3rd party to work under the direction and control of the 3rd party to support or supplement the 3rd party's work force in work situations such as employee absences, temporary skill shortages, seasonal work load conditions and special assignments and projects. These exemptions from liability apply to all employees, supervisors, officers and directors of the employer for any personal injuries arising out of and in the course of employment, or for death resulting from those injuries. These exemptions also apply to occupational diseases sustained by an employee or for death resulting from those diseases. These exemptions do not apply to an illegally employed minor as described in section 408, subsection 2.

Sec. 2. 39-A MRSA §104-A is enacted to read:

§104-A.__Exemption for lineworkers

Notwithstanding section 104, the estate of an employee may sue the employee's employer for wrongful death if:

1.__Lineworker.__The employee was employed as a lineworker;

2.__Emergency situation; widespread outages.__The employee sustained personal injuries arising out of and in the course of employment during an emergency situation while the employee was working to restore power during widespread storm outages; and

3.__Work in excess of 24 consecutive hours.__The employee's injuries were sustained after working in excess of 24 consecutive hours.