Z-1421.1                   _______________________________________________

                                                     SENATE BILL 6042

                              _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              53rd Legislature                             1994 Regular Session

By Senators Wojahn, Bauer, Oke, West and Winsley; by request of Legislative Budget Committee

Read first time 01/10/94.  Referred to Committee on Law & Justice.

Revising provisions relating to the employer reporting program of the office of support enforcement.

          AN ACT Relating to the employer reporting program of the office of support enforcement; and amending RCW 26.23.040.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

        Sec. 1.  RCW 26.23.040 and 1993 c 480 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:

          (1) Except as provided in subsection (3) of this section, all employers doing business in the state of Washington, and to whom the department of employment security has assigned the standard industrial classification sic codes listed in subsection (2) of this section, shall report to the Washington state support registry:

          (a) The hiring of any person who resides or works in this state to whom the employer anticipates paying earnings; and

          (b) The rehiring or return to work of any employee who was laid off, furloughed, separated, granted a leave without pay, or terminated from employment.

          (2) Employers in the standard industrial classifications that shall report to the Washington state support registry include:

          (a) Construction industry sic codes:  15, building; and 16, other than building;

          (b) Manufacturing industry sic code 37, transportation equipment;

          (c) Wholesale trade industry sic codes:  73, business services, except sic code 7362 (temporary help supply services); and 80, health services.

          (3) Employers are not required to report the hiring of any person who:

          (a) Will be employed for less than one months duration;

          (b) Will be employed sporadically so that the employee will be paid for less than three hundred fifty hours during a continuous six-month period; or

          (c) Will have gross earnings less than three hundred dollars in every month.

          The secretary of the department of social and health services may adopt rules to establish additional exemptions if needed to reduce unnecessary or burdensome reporting.

          (4) Employers may report by mailing the employee's copy of the W-4 form, or other means authorized by the registry which will result in timely reporting.

          (5) Employers shall submit reports within thirty-five days of the hiring, rehiring, or return to work of the employee.  The report shall contain:

          (a) The employee's name, address, social security number, and date of birth; and

          (b) The employer's name, address, and employment security reference number or unified business identifier number.

          (6) An employer who fails to report as required under this section shall be given a written warning for the first violation and shall be subject to a civil penalty of up to two hundred dollars per month for each subsequent violation after the warning has been given.  All violations within a single month shall be considered a single violation for purposes of assessing the penalty.  The penalty may be imposed and collected by the office of support enforcement under RCW 74.20A.270.

          (7) The registry shall retain the information for a particular employee only if the registry is responsible for establishing, enforcing, or collecting a support obligation or debt of the employee.  If the employee does not owe such an obligation or a debt, the registry shall not create a record regarding the employee and the information contained in the notice shall be promptly destroyed.  Prior to the destruction of the notice, the department of social and health services shall make the information contained in the notice available to other state agencies, based upon the written request of an agency's director or chief executive, specifically for comparison with records or information possessed by the requesting agency to detect improper or fraudulent claims, or to determine potential tax liability or employer compliance with registration and licensing requirements.  If after comparison no such situation is found or reasonably suspected to exist, the information shall be promptly destroyed by the requesting agency.

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