FINAL BILL REPORT

SHB 1581

                                 C 11 L 89 E1

BYHouse Committee on Commerce & Labor (originally sponsored by Representatives Wang, Brough, Cole, Miller, Vekich, Anderson, R. King, Winsley, Hankins, Rector, Brekke, Appelwick, Jacobsen, Leonard, Dellwo, Nutley, Locke, Belcher, H. Sommers, R. Fisher, Wineberry, Sayan, Prentice, Valle, Crane, Nelson, Ebersole, Fraser, Phillips, Rust and Basich)

Providing for family and medical leave.

House Committe on Commerce & Labor

Rereferred House Committee on Appropriations

Senate Committee on Economic Development & Labor

SYNOPSIS AS ENACTED

BACKGROUND:

The growth in two wage-earner families, single parent families, and working women, among other factors, has prompted an examination of employer leave policies to better accommodate employees.

In 1987, the House of Representatives passed family leave legislation which would have provided for 16 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to care for a newborn or adoptive child or a family member with a serious health condition.  The bill died in the Senate and the Legislature established a Select Committee on Employment and the Family to study family leave and related issues.  The Select Committee recommended what became known as the "family care" law, which was enacted in 1988.  The family care law requires all employers to allow employees covered by industrial welfare (all major employee groups except agricultural employees) to use accrued sick leave to care for their children with health conditions requiring treatment or supervision.

Human Rights Commission rules also address leave from employment in a limited way.  All employers with eight or more employees must grant a woman a leave of absence for the period of maternity disability.  No leave is generally required beyond the period of a woman's disability or for other new parents, such as fathers and adoptive parents.  However, an employer must treat men and women equally.  If, for example, an employer grants leave to women to care for newly adopted children, the employer must also grant leave to men.

SUMMARY:

FAMILY LEAVE

Coverage

Employees of covered Washington employers are entitled to unpaid, job-protected family leave.  The family leave provisions apply to an employee who worked for a covered employer at least 35 hours per week during the previous year.  Private business or local government must provide family leave if the employer employs 100 or more persons either at the place where the employee reports for work, or if the employer maintains a central hiring location and customarily transfers employees among workplaces, within a 20 mile radius of the place where the employee reports for work.  The state government must also provide family leave.

An employer may limit or deny family leave to up to 10 percent of the employer's workforce in the state which the employer designates as key personnel, or to the highest paid 10 percent of the employer's employees in the state.  Limitations are placed on an employer's designation of key personnel.

Leave

An employee is entitled to 12 weeks of family leave during any 24 month period for the following reasons:

      o To care for a newborn biological child or stepchild, or adopted child under the age of six.  The leave must be completed within 12 months of the birth or adoption placement, or

      o To care for a child with a terminal health condition.

The leave is in addition to any maternity disability leave.

Job protection and benefits

An employee returning from leave is entitled to reinstatement to the same position or a position with equivalent benefits and pay within 20 miles of the employee's workplace, or, if the employer's circumstances have changed, to any other position which is vacant and for which the employee is qualified.  The right to reinstatement does not apply if the employee's position is eliminated by a bona fide restructuring or reduction-in-force, the workplace is shut down or moved, or if the employee takes another job, fails to provide timely notice of leave, or fails to return on the established ending date of leave.

If an employer provided medical or dental benefits prior to leave, the employee may continue coverage by paying for the continued coverage.

Other provisions

Notice.  An employee planning to take family leave for the birth or adoption of a child must give the employer at least 30 days' written notice of the dates of leave.  The employee must adhere to the dates unless the birth is premature, the mother is incapacitated such that she is unable to care for the child, or an adoption placement is unanticipated, in which case the employee must state revised dates as soon as possible but at least within one working day. The employer and employee may also agree to alter the dates of leave.

If leave to care for a child with a terminal health condition is foreseeable, the employee must give the employer at least 14 days' notice of the leave and make a reasonable effort to schedule the leave so as not to unduly disrupt the operations of the employer.  If the leave is not foreseeable, the employee shall notify the employer of the leave as soon as possible, but at least within one working day.

If an employee fails to give the required notice the employer may reduce or extend the leave by three weeks.

Use of paid leave.  An employer may require an employee to use the employee's paid leave before taking unpaid leave.

Reduced leave schedule.  With the employer's approval, an employee may take leave by working fewer than the employee's usual hours or days per week.

Confirmation by health care provider.  An employer may require confirmation by a health care provider in case of a dispute regarding premature birth, incapacitation of the mother, maternity disability, or terminal health condition of a child.

General provisions.  The Department of Labor & Industries is directed to administer the family leave provisions.  The department must furnish employers with a poster which describes the law.

An employee may file a complaint with the department within 90 days of an alleged violation of the family leave or adoptive leave provisions.  The department may fine an employer up to $200 for the first violation and up to $1000 for each subsequent violation.  The department may also order an employer to reinstate an employee, with or without back pay.  Employees do not have a private cause of action.

The department is directed to cease enforcing the act upon the effective date of any federal act which the department determines, with the consent of the Legislative Budget Committee, to be substantially similar to Washington law.

LEAVE FOR ADOPTIVE AND OTHER PARENTS

An employer must grant a parent adopting a child under the age of six and a stepparent of a newborn child leave under the same terms as the employer grants leave to biological parents.  An employer must also grant leave to men and women upon the same terms.  An employer is not required to grant men leave equivalent to maternity disability leave.  The provisions for adoptive and other leave apply to all employees covered by industrial welfare.  The Department of Labor and Industries is directed to administer and enforce the adoptive leave provision.  The department may assess penalties for infractions.

VOTES ON FINAL PASSAGE:

      House 57  39

First Special Session

      House 50  31

      Senate    27    18 (Senate amended)

      House 78  16 (House concurred)

EFFECTIVE:September 1, 1989