FINAL BILL REPORT

HB 2222

                                  C 380 L 89

BYRepresentatives Vekich, Prentice, Patrick and Leonard

Regulating the use of pesticides and providing unemployment insurance and industrial welfare coverage for agricultural employees.

House Committe on Commerce & Labor

SYNOPSIS AS ENACTED

BACKGROUND:

Pesticide Control and Application.  The Washington Pesticide Control Act and the Washington Pesticide Application Act are administered by the Department of Agriculture.  With certain exceptions, the Pesticide Control Act requires every pesticide distributed within the state to be registered annually with the director of the department.  It also requires that pesticide dealers, dealer managers, and pest control consultants be licensed.

The Pesticide Application Act requires persons who commercially apply pesticides on the lands of others to be licensed as pesticide applicators.  A person employed by an applicator who applies pesticides must be licensed as a pesticide operator.  The act also requires licenses for use, regulates the use of pesticides by public entities and operators, and requires certification of persons who apply or supervise the application of restricted use pesticides on their own agricultural lands.  Landscape gardeners are exempt from licensing.  The director is authorized to require certain applicators to keep records of pesticide applications.

The director may levy a civil penalty of up to $1,000 for a violation of the Pesticide Control Act or the Pesticide Application Act.

The act creates the Pesticide Advisory Board which is charged with advising the director on all problems relating to the use of pesticides.

Review of Pesticide Incidents.  Several agencies, including the Department of Social and Health Services, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Labor and Industries, and local health departments have varying responsibility for investigating pesticide incidents.  No formal coordination exists between these agencies for reporting and tracking of cases of pesticide exposure. In Oregon, the Oregon Pesticide Analytic Response Center is responsible for centralizing information about and investigating pesticide incidents.

Reporting of Pesticide Exposure.  The Department of Social and Health Services is authorized to investigate pesticide poisonings and provide technical assistance and consultation to health care providers on the health effects of pesticides.  If an emergency involving pesticides occurs that represents a health hazard to the public, the department must be notified.  However, Washington law does not require health care providers to report pesticide poisoning cases to the department or local health agencies.  Several states, including Oregon and California, require reporting of pesticide-related illness.

Unemployment insurance for agricultural employees.  Workers in agricultural employment are covered for unemployment compensation benefits if the employer is a large farmer, that is a farmer who (1) has paid $20,000 or more in wages for agricultural labor during any quarter in the current or preceding calendar year; or (2)  has employed ten or more agricultural workers for some part of a day in each of 20 different calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year.  If an agricultural worker is employed by an employer who does not meet these criteria, then the hours worked for that employer are not "covered" hours.

Labor Standards for agricultural employees. Industrial welfare laws (labor standards) were first enacted in Washington in 1913 to establish mandatory employment standards for women and minor employees.  When this law was revised in 1973 to provide employment standards for all employees, agricultural employees were excluded.  These standards regulate such working conditions as lifting requirements, deductions from wages, payroll recordkeeping, meal and rest breaks, and special conditions for minors.  The law is administered by the Department of Labor and Industries.

SUMMARY:

Pesticide Control Act.  The fee for registering a pesticide is increased from $20 to a range from $50 to $105 per product, based on the number of pesticides registered by a person during a calendar year.  An additional fee of no more than $10 may be assessed for the registration of home and garden pesticides to fund the activities of a Pesticide Incident Reporting and Tracking Review Panel.  The annual fees for a pesticide dealer's license and for a pest control consultant's license are each increased from $20 to $30.  The fee for a dealer manager's license is raised from $10 to $50.  A fee of $15 is established for a public pest control consultant's license which must be renewed annually.  The director is authorized to establish license examination fees by rule.  The additional fee charged for the late renewal of a registration is raised to $25.  The pesticide registration must include the complete formula of the pesticide.

The categories of persons who must be licensed as pesticide dealers are expanded.  The definition of "pest control consultant" is changed to include brokers operating without a place of business. A user of a pesticide is permitted to transfer the pesticide to another user in certain circumstances without obtaining a dealer's license if the sole purpose of the transfer is to keep the pesticide from becoming hazardous waste.

The maximum civil penalty for violations of the act is raised from $1,000 to $7,500.

The department is required to report to the Legislature on its pesticide regulatory activities by December 1 of each year.

Pesticide Application Act.  The annual license fee for a commercial pesticide operator is increased from $20 to $30.  The license fee for a private-commercial applicator's license and for a demonstration and research license is raised from $20 to $50.  A public operator license is created and the fee for the license is established at $15 per year.  Public operators working in the health vector field are exempt from the fee requirement.  The annual fee for private applicator certification is established at $15.  Late renewal fees are changed to $25 for a commercial pesticide applicator's license and an amount equal to the license fee for all other licenses.

Pesticides restricted to use by certified applicators may only be used under the direct supervision of a certified applicator.  The exemption of landscape gardeners is repealed beginning January 1, 1990.  An exemption from licensing is provided for certain lawn and yard maintenance persons.

The composition of the Pesticide Advisory Board is changed to add the following new members: an agricultural labor representative, an environmental representative, and a private health care practitioner.

The director is authorized to establish recordkeeping requirements for licensees, permittees, and certified applicators.  Except for owners and operators of dairy farms, all persons applying pesticides to more than one acre of agricultural land per calendar year are required to keep records for seven years.  The records may be kept on a form adopted jointly by the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Labor and Industries.  The records must be available to the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Social and Health Services, medical personnel, and, in industrial insurance cases, the Department of Labor and Industries and the employees or their representatives.

Both the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Social and Health Services must initiate response to a pesticide incident.  The time limit to initiate response will range from immediate to 48 hours, depending on the nature of the incident and rules adopted by the Department of Agriculture.  Crop damage claims must be filed within 30 days, rather than 60 days.

The maximum civil penalty for violations of the pesticide regulations is raised from $1,000 to $7,500.  Persons who are aggrieved by a violation of the act may request an inspection of the area in which the violation occurred and may receive notice of any penalties imposed following an investigation of the violation.

By December 1 of each year, the department is required to report to the Legislature on its regulation of pesticide applicators.

Employer pesticide recordkeeping and employee protection. Pesticide recordkeeping requirements are established for employers who apply pesticides to an agricultural crop.  The records must be kept for seven years.  The employer may use a form adopted jointly by the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Labor and Industries.  The Department of Social and Health Services, the Pesticide Incident Reporting and Tracking Review Panel, the Department of Labor and Industries, and, in industrial insurance cases, employees or their authorized representatives may have access to the records.

Beginning July 1, 1990, if pesticides are applied to a labor-intensive crop, the field must be posted if the pesticide has a reentry interval of greater than 24 hours.

Pesticide incident review panel.  The Pesticide Incident Reporting and Tracking Review Panel is created to establish guidelines for centralizing the receipt of information involving pesticide incidents, to review and make recommendations for investigations, and to review complex cases.  All recommendations of the panel must be implemented unless the agency provides written reasons for not adopting the recommendations.  The panel is also authorized to identify inadequacies in federal law, including reentry intervals, and make recommendations to the appropriate agencies on changes in reentry intervals.

A surcharge of $5 is added to each pesticide registration and license fee established by the Washington Pesticide Control Act and the Washington Pesticide Application Act, to fund the activities of the review panel and its supporting agencies.  An additional one-time surcharge of $5 is also added for review panel activities, to be collected on January 1, 1990.

Physician reporting of pesticide poisonings.  Beginning January 1, 1990, a health care provider must report a case or suspected case of pesticide poisoning to the Department of Social and Health Services.  The report must be made in the manner prescribed by the State Board of Health, with reporting time periods ranging from immediate to seven days, depending on the severity of the case.  The Department of Social and Health Services must provide a toll-free telephone number for any oral reports.  Pesticide applicators or employers must provide available information to the health care provider on pesticide applications that may have affected the patient's health.

The Department of Social and Health Services is responsible for investigating reports of cases or suspected cases of pesticide poisoning. The department must notify the Pesticide Incident Reporting and Tracking Review Panel within the time period established by the State Board of Health.  The results of the investigation must be reported to the health care provider making the original report.

The department is directed to develop and implement a medical education program to alert health care providers of symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and reporting of pesticides.

If a health care provider fails to make the required reports, the provider may be subject to disciplinary action by the appropriate authority.

No cause of action may arise as a result of a failure to make the required reports or because of any report made to the department.

Unemployment insurance for agricultural employees. Beginning January 1, 1990, unemployment insurance coverage is extended to agricultural employees who work on small farms.  Exemptions are provided for students at an elementary or secondary school or institution of higher education and for family members working for small farm corporations.

Unemployment insurance contributions are established at 2.5 percent of taxable wages for newly covered employers in the following industries: (1) vegetables and melons; (2) fruits and tree nuts; (3) horticulture; (4) livestock; and (5) timber tracts.

Beginning January 1, 1990, "suitable work" for agricultural employees receiving unemployment insurance benefits is any agricultural labor available from any employer, unless the commissioner finds the specific work unsuitable for a particular individual.

Beginning January 1, 1990, contributions for successor employers will be at the rate class assigned to the predecessor employer at the time of the transfer of the business, rather than at the rate paid by the predecessor employer.

The Employment Security Department is required to work with agricultural employers to improve their understanding of the unemployment insurance system and increase compliance.  The department must report its progress in 1990, 1991, and 1992.  The Employment Security Department, the Department of Labor and Industries, the Department of Licensing, and the Department of Revenue must develop a plan to implement voluntary combined reporting for agricultural employers and report to the Legislature by December 1, 1989.

Agricultural Employees Labor Standards.  An advisory committee is created to develop recommendations for rules on labor standards for the employment of minors in agriculture.  Based on these recommendations, and on cultural and harvesting requirements, the Department of Labor and Industries must adopt rules by July 1, 1990, on only the following: (1) minor employment rules; and (2) rest and meal breaks for all employees, taking into consideration naturally occurring breaks.  In addition, employers who are required to keep employment records under the State Minimum Wage Act must keep the records for three years.  When agricultural employees are paid, the employer must provide the employees with itemized statements indicating the pay basis, the rate of pay, the gross pay, and any deductions.  Violations of these labor standards are class I civil infractions, with a maximum penalty of $250 for each violation.

VOTES ON FINAL PASSAGE:

      House 85  12

      Senate    35    10 (Senate amended)

      House 86   6 (House concurred)

EFFECTIVE:July 23, 1989

            January 1, 1990 (Sections 69, 71 - 73, 78 - 81)

            July 1, 1990 (Section 76)