BILL REQ. #: H-1546.1
State of Washington | 62nd Legislature | 2011 Regular Session |
Read first time 02/10/11. Referred to Committee on Judiciary.
AN ACT Relating to addressing workplace bullying by making it an unfair practice to subject an employee to an abusive work environment; adding a new section to chapter 49.60 RCW; and creating a new section.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1 (1) The legislature finds and declares that:
(a) The social and economic well-being of the state is dependent
upon healthy and productive employees;
(b) Surveys and studies have documented that: Approximately one in
five employees directly experience health-endangering workplace
bullying, abuse, and harassment; and abusive work environments can have
serious effects on targeted employees and serious consequences for
employers; and
(c) Unless mistreated employees have been subjected to abusive
treatment at work for unlawful discriminatory reasons, they are
unlikely to have legal recourse.
(2) For these reasons, the legislature intends:
(a) To provide legal recourse for employees who have been harmed,
psychologically, physically, or economically, by being deliberately
subjected to abusive work environments; and
(b) To provide legal incentives for employers to prevent and
respond to mistreatment of employees at work.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2 A new section is added to chapter 49.60 RCW
to read as follows:
(1) It is an unfair practice to subject an employee to an abusive
work environment.
(2) It is an affirmative defense to an action for an abusive work
environment that:
(a) The employer exercised reasonable care to prevent and promptly
correct the abusive conduct and the aggrieved employee unreasonably
failed to take advantage of appropriate preventive or corrective
opportunities provided by the employer. The employer may demonstrate
reasonable care by adopting employment policies prohibiting abusive
conduct and establishing effective enforcement procedures. This
defense is not available when the abusive conduct culminates in a
negative employment decision; or
(b) The complaint is grounded primarily upon a negative employment
decision made consistent with an employer's legitimate business
interests, such as a termination or demotion based on an employee's
poor performance, or the complaint is grounded primarily upon an
employer's reasonable investigation of potentially illegal or unethical
activity.
(3) For purposes of this section:
(a) "Abusive conduct" is conduct of an employer or employee in the
workplace, with malice, that a reasonable person would find hostile,
offensive, and unrelated to an employer's legitimate business
interests. In considering whether abusive conduct is present, a trier
of fact should weigh the severity, nature, and frequency of the
conduct. Abusive conduct may include, but is not limited to, repeated
infliction of verbal abuse such as the use of derogatory remarks,
insults, and epithets; verbal or physical conduct that a reasonable
person would find threatening, intimidating, or humiliating; or the
gratuitous sabotage or undermining of a person's work performance. A
single act normally will not constitute abusive conduct, unless
especially severe and egregious.
(b) "Abusive work environment" is a workplace where an employee is
subjected to abusive conduct that is so severe that it causes physical
or psychological harm to the employee.
(c) "Constructive discharge" is abusive conduct: (i) Which causes
the employee to resign; (ii) where, prior to resigning, the employee
brings to the employer's attention the existence of the abusive
conduct; and (iii) which the employer fails to take reasonable steps to
eliminate.
(d) "Malice" is the desire to see another person suffer
psychological, physical, or economic harm, without legitimate cause or
justification. Malice may be inferred from the presence of factors
such as outward expressions of hostility, harmful conduct inconsistent
with an employer's legitimate business interests, a continuation of
harmful, illegitimate conduct after the complainant requests that it
cease or demonstrates outward signs of emotional or physical distress
in the face of the conduct, or attempts to exploit the complainant's
known psychological or physical vulnerability.
(e) "Negative employment decision" is a termination, constructive
discharge, demotion, unfavorable reassignment, refusal to promote, or
disciplinary action.
(f) "Physical harm" is the material impairment of a person's
physical health or bodily integrity, as documented by a competent
physician or supported by competent expert evidence at trial.
(g) "Psychological harm" is the material impairment of a person's
mental health, as documented by a competent psychologist, psychiatrist,
or psychotherapist, or supported by competent expert evidence at trial.