WSR 24-01-112
PERMANENT RULES
DEPARTMENT OF
LABOR AND INDUSTRIES
[Filed December 19, 2023, 9:24 a.m., effective January 19, 2024]
Effective Date of Rule: Thirty-one days after filing.
Purpose: The purpose of this rule making is to add direct care registered nurses to the list of those workers for whom post traumatic stress disorder is presumed to be an occupational disease. The adoption of this rule amendment will align with changes to RCW
51.08.142 and
51.32.395 under 2023's 2SSB 5454 (chapter 370, Laws of 2023).
Citation of Rules Affected by this Order: Amending WAC 296-14-300.
Adopted under notice filed as WSR 23-18-075 on September 5, 2023.
Changes Other than Editing from Proposed to Adopted Version: Since the bill has been codified, the reference to the new RCW stated as "RCW 51.32.--- (section 2, chapter 370, Laws of 2023)" in the proposed rule amendment has been updated to "51.32.395" in the adopted rule amendment.
Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Comply with Federal Statute: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Federal Rules or Standards: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Recently Enacted State Statutes: New 0, Amended 1, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted at the Request of a Nongovernmental Entity: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted on the Agency's own Initiative: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Clarify, Streamline, or Reform Agency Procedures: New 0, Amended 1, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted using Negotiated Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Pilot Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Other Alternative Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Date Adopted: December 19, 2023.
Joel Sacks
Director
OTS-4758.2
AMENDATORY SECTION(Amending WSR 23-08-063, filed 4/4/23, effective 5/5/23)
WAC 296-14-300Mental condition/mental disabilities.
(1) Claims based on mental conditions or mental disabilities caused by stress do not fall within the definition of an occupational disease.
Examples of mental conditions or mental disabilities caused by stress that do not fall within occupational disease shall include, but are not limited to, those conditions and disabilities resulting from:
(a) Change of employment duties;
(b) Conflicts with a supervisor;
(c) Actual or perceived threat of loss of a job, demotion, or disciplinary action;
(d) Relationships with supervisors, coworkers, or the public;
(e) Specific or general job dissatisfaction;
(f) Work load pressures;
(g) Subjective perceptions of employment conditions or environment;
(h) Loss of job or demotion for whatever reason;
(i) Fear of exposure to chemicals, radiation biohazards, or other perceived hazards;
(j) Objective or subjective stresses of employment;
(k) Personnel decisions;
(l) Actual, perceived, or anticipated financial reversals or difficulties occurring to the businesses of self-employed individuals or corporate officers.
(2)(a) Stress resulting from exposure to a single traumatic event will be adjudicated as an industrial injury. See RCW
51.08.100.
(b) Examples of single traumatic events include: Actual or threatened death, actual or threatened physical assault, actual or threatened sexual assault, and life-threatening traumatic injury.
(c) These exposures must occur in one of the following ways:
(i) Directly experiencing the traumatic event;
(ii) Witnessing, in person, the event as it occurred to others; or
(iii) Extreme exposure to aversive details of the traumatic event.
(d) Repeated exposure to traumatic events, none of which are a single traumatic event as defined in subsection (2)(b) and (c) of this section, is not an industrial injury (see RCW
51.08.100) or an occupational disease (see RCW
51.08.142). A single traumatic event as defined in subsection (2)(b) and (c) of this section that occurs within a series of exposures will be adjudicated as an industrial injury (see RCW
51.08.100).
(3) For certain firefighters ((
and))
, law enforcement officers,
and direct care registered nurses there is a presumption that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an occupational disease as provided by RCW
51.08.142 ((
and))
, 51.32.185
, and 51.32.395.
(4) For public safety telecommunicators, PTSD may be considered an occupational disease as provided by RCW
51.08.142.
(5) Mental conditions or mental disabilities that specify pain primarily as a psychiatric symptom (e.g., somatic symptom disorder, with predominant pain), or that are characterized by excessive or abnormal thoughts, feelings, behaviors or neurological symptoms (e.g., conversion disorder, factitious disorder) are not clinically related to occupational exposure.