BILL REQ. #:  H-3687.1 

Prefiled 1/9/2004. Read first time 01/12/2004.   Referred to Committee on Commerce & Labor.

     AN ACT Relating to workers required to train successors; adding a new section to chapter 49.12 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 50.04 RCW; and prescribing penalties.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   A new section is added to chapter 49.12 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) An employer may not order a layoff of workers who were required to train other persons to perform their job duties unless, ten days before the workers began training the other persons, the employer gave written notice of the order to: (a) The workers affected by the order; and (b) the department.
     (2) The written notice must specify: (a) The number of affected positions; (b) the number of affected positions being relocated or outsourced to a different location one hundred miles or more away; (c) the job titles and wages of the affected positions; (d) the locations to which the affected positions are being relocated or outsourced; and (e) any additional information specified in rule by the department.
     (3)(a) An employer who fails to give notice as required by subsection (1) of this section is liable to each employee entitled to notice who lost his or her employment for:
     (i) The value of wages at the average regular rate of compensation received by the employee during the last three years of his or her employment, or the employee's final rate of compensation, whichever is higher; and
     (ii) The value of any benefits to which the employee would have been entitled had his or her employment not been lost, including, but not limited to: (A) The value of any sick leave or other paid time off as defined in RCW 49.12.265; (B) the value of any pension, profit sharing, stock bonus, stock purchase, and stock option plans; and (C) the cost of any medical expenses incurred by the employee that would have been covered under an employee benefit plan.
     (b) Liability under this subsection (3) is calculated for the period of the employer's violation, up to a maximum of ninety days, or one-half the number of days that the employee was employed by the employer, whichever period is smaller.
     (4) An employer who fails to give notice as required by subsection (1) of this section is also subject to a civil penalty of not more than five hundred dollars per employee entitled to notice for each day of the employer's violation. Civil penalties collected under this section shall be paid into the unemployment trust fund.
     (5) The department shall administer and investigate violations of this section. In an investigation or proceeding under this section, the director has, in addition to all other powers granted by law, the authority to examine the books and records of an employer. The department shall adopt rules necessary to carry out this section.
     (6) A person, including an employee representative, seeking to establish liability against an employer may bring a civil action on behalf of the person, other persons similarly situated, or both, in any court of competent jurisdiction. The court may award reasonable attorneys' fees as part of costs to a plaintiff who prevails in a civil action brought under this section.
     (7) For the purposes of this section:
     (a) "Employer" means an employer that has one hundred or more workers.
     (b) "Layoff" means a separation from employment of a person engaged in the employment of an employer or a termination of a person who is working under an independent contract, the essence of which is his or her personal labor.
     (c) "Worker" has the meaning provided in RCW 51.08.180.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 50.04 RCW to read as follows:
     Payments to a person under section 1 of this act may not be construed as wages or used to deny or reduce benefits under this title.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected.