Paid family & medical leave (HB 1609, SB 5679, HB 1160, SB 5558)

Scheduled to begin in October of this year, the program would have given new parents $250 a week for up to five weeks while they take time off work to bond with a new born or newly adopted child. In 2008 funding in the amount of $6.2 million was approved for the Department of Employment Security to build a computer system to process payments for paid family leave.

As economic conditions around the nation and in the state declined, a state hiring freeze was implemented and the family leave computer project was suspended. How to pay for the benefit was never determined.

The following bills were introduced this session seeking to either expand or eliminate paid family leave, none of which moved forward:

HB 1609 & SB 5679 – would have imposed a two cent per hour payroll tax, paid by the employer who may pass the cost onto the employee, to fund the program. These bills would have expanded coverage to include ill family members and elder care.
HB 1160 & SB 5558 – would have eliminated the family medical leave program and repealed the family medical leave act.

The legislature will likely table paid family medical leave during the upcoming two year budget cycle by simply not funding it in the budget.

Expanding presumptive disease for firefighters (HB 1932)

This proposed legislation would have expanded the definition of presumptive occupational diseases affecting firefighters by adding methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and esophageal cancer to those diseases presumed to be duty-related.

AWC testified in opposition to this bill and the expansion of presumptive duty related illness citing the lack of empirical data supporting the claim that firefighters are more prone to these illnesses than the general public. The bill did not pass out of committee.

Limiting mandatory overtime for corrections officers and sergeants (SB 5907/HB 1800)

SB 5907 was amended in committee to exclude corrections officers employed by a city jail. The bill now sits in the Rules Committee and limits mandatory overtime for corrections officers and sergeants employed by a county jail in King County. The companion bill, HB 1800, was introduced in the House Commerce & Labor Committee, but did not move forward.

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