FINAL BILL REPORT

                 SHB 1178

                          FULL VETO

                    As Passed Legislature

Brief Description:  Exempting persons under age twenty‑one employed on the family farm from industrial insurance coverage.

Sponsors:   House Committee on Commerce & Labor (originally sponsored by Representatives McMorris, Lisk, Mulliken, Chandler, L. Thomas, Thompson, Boldt, Mastin, Goldsmith, Stevens, Schoesler, Honeyford, Johnson, Koster, Mielke and Sheahan).

House Committee on Commerce & Labor

Senate Committee on Labor, Commerce & Trade

Background:  The state industrial insurance law requires all covered employers to be self-insured or to purchase industrial insurance from the Department of Labor and Industries.  This insurance provides benefits to workers who are injured in the course of employment or who develop an occupational disease. Employers of employees who are excluded from this mandatory requirement may elect coverage for their workers by filing notice with the department.  The excluded employments include the employment of a child under age 18 who is employed by his or her parents in agricultural activities on the family farm.

Summary:  The exclusion from industrial insurance coverage of children under age 18 who are employed by their parents on the family farm is deleted.  Instead,  parents of a person under age 21 may elect to exclude their employment of that person from industrial insurance coverage if the person being excluded is employed by the parents in agricultural activities on their family farm and either resides with the parents or resides on their family farm.  To elect exclusion from coverage, the parents must file a written notice with the Department of Labor and Industries.  The parents may subsequently obtain coverage for the excluded person by filing a notice of election of coverage.

Votes on Final Passage:

House     95 0

Senate    43 0