BILL REQ. #:  S-0278.1 

Read first time 02/06/2003.   Referred to Committee on Commerce & Trade.

     AN ACT Relating to sheepherder housing; amending RCW 70.114A.020; and adding a new section to chapter 49.17 RCW.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 70.114A.020 and 1999 c 374 s 6 are each amended to read as follows:
     The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter.
     (1) "Agricultural employee" means any person who renders personal services to, or under the direction of, an agricultural employer in connection with the employer's agricultural activity.
     (2) "Agricultural employer" means any person engaged in agricultural activity, including the growing, producing, or harvesting of farm or nursery products, or engaged in the forestation or reforestation of lands, which includes but is not limited to the planting, transplanting, tubing, precommercial thinning, and thinning of trees and seedlings, the clearing, piling, and disposal of brush and slash, the harvest of Christmas trees, and other related activities. For the purposes of mobile housing for range sheepherders, the term "agricultural employer" does not include persons engaged in the business of sheepherding.
     (3) "Department" means the department of health.
     (4) "Dwelling unit" means a shelter, building, or portion of a building, that may include cooking and eating facilities, that is:
     (a) Provided and designated by the operator as either a sleeping area, living area, or both, for occupants; and
     (b) Physically separated from other sleeping and common-use areas.
     (5) "Enforcement" and "enforcement actions" include the authority to levy and collect fines.
     (6) "Facility" means a sleeping place, drinking water, toilet, sewage disposal, food handling installation, or other installations required for compliance with this chapter.
     (7) "Occupant" means a temporary worker or a person who resides with a temporary worker at the housing site.
     (8) "Operator" means a person holding legal title to the land on which temporary worker housing is located. However, if the legal title and the right to possession are in different persons, "operator" means a person having the lawful control or supervision over the temporary worker housing under a lease or other arrangement.
     (9) "Temporary worker" means an agricultural employee employed intermittently and not residing year-round at the same site.
     (10) "Temporary worker housing" means a place, area, or piece of land where sleeping places or housing sites are provided by an agricultural employer for his or her agricultural employees or by another person, including a temporary worker housing operator, who is providing such accommodations for employees, for temporary, seasonal occupancy.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 49.17 RCW to read as follows:
     For the purposes of mobile housing for range sheepherders, the department shall not enforce standards exceeding the minimum applicable requirements for such housing found in standards adopted by the United States department of labor.