H-3802.2

HOUSE BILL 2820


State of Washington	65th Legislature	2018 Regular Session

By Representatives McCabe, Pettigrew, Stambaugh, Macri, Vick, Reeves, Jenkin, Sells, Kagi, Muri, and Kilduff

Read first time 01/17/18. Referred to Committee on Labor & Workplace Standards.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. (1) The legislature finds that unhealthy relationships lead to violence, broken families, unsafe and unlawful workplaces, and other societal ills. According to the national coalition against domestic violence, every nine seconds a woman is assaulted or beaten in the United States and one in three women and one in four men have been victims of physical violence by an intimate partner. Every day in the nation, more than twenty thousand calls are made to domestic violence hotlines. Further, a recent poll found that more than half of women in the United States have experienced unwanted and inappropriate sexual advances from men, three in ten have put up with unwanted advances from male coworkers, and a quarter have endured unwanted advances from men who had influence over their work situation.

(2) Therefore, the legislature intends to shine the light on and help curb unhealthy relationships by creating a campaign to provide information to empower victims and others to support healthy relationships in Washington's families, workplaces, and communities.

(2)(a) Each employer shall solicit at least one employee to volunteer to serve as the contact person for the healthy relationships campaign. If no employee volunteers, the owner of the business shall serve as the contact person. The contact person may be known as the "healthy relationship star."

(c) If an employee seeks out a healthy relationship star with concerns or questions about domestic violence, sexual harassment, and other unlawful or unhealthy relationships, the healthy relationship star may provide such employee a link to the multimedia presentation and other resources.

(3) The department shall solicit and award a contract for a multimedia presentation, to be no more than sixty minutes in length, on healthy relationships, which must be posted on the department's web site. The video must cover how to identify domestic violence, sexual harassment, and other forms of unhealthy relationships, and provide resources for assistance. In addition, the department shall create and make available on its web site a poster that employers may use to let employees know the name and contact information for the employer's healthy relationship star or stars.

(4) The department shall create a means by which an employer who participates in the healthy relationships campaign may receive acknowledgment of their participation in the campaign.

(5) The department shall create and consult with a broad-based advisory committee in creating the criteria for and awarding the contract and designing the poster under subsection (3) of this section, and developing the acknowledgment of participation under subsection (4) of this section.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. If any part of this act is found to be in conflict with federal requirements that are a prescribed condition to the allocation of federal funds to the state, the conflicting part of this act is inoperative solely to the extent of the conflict and with respect to the agencies directly affected, and this finding does not affect the operation of the remainder of this act in its application to the agencies concerned. Rules adopted under this act must meet federal requirements that are a necessary condition to the receipt of federal funds by the state.