HOUSE BILL REPORT

HB 2758

As Reported by House Committee On:

Labor & Workplace Standards

Title: An act relating to recognizing posttraumatic stress disorders of 911 emergency dispatch personnel.

Brief Description: Recognizing posttraumatic stress disorders of 911 emergency dispatch personnel.

Sponsors: Representatives Corry, Pettigrew, Chandler, Davis, Eslick, McCaslin, Dent, Morgan, Gildon, Lekanoff and Pollet.

Brief History:

Committee Activity:

Labor & Workplace Standards: 1/27/20, 2/6/20 [DPS].

Majority Report: The substitute bill be substituted therefor and the substitute bill do pass. Signed by 4 members: Representatives Sells, Chair; Chapman, Vice Chair; Gregerson and Ormsby.

Minority Report: Do not pass. Signed by 3 members: Representatives Mosbrucker, Ranking Minority Member; Chandler, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Hoff.

Staff: Trudes Tango (786-7384).

Background:

Under the state's industrial insurance laws, a worker who, in the course of employment, is injured or suffers disability from an occupational disease is entitled to certain benefits. An "occupational disease" is one that arises naturally and proximately out of employment.

Claims based on mental conditions or mental disabilities caused by stress specifically do not fall within the definition of occupational disease. Rules adopted by the Department of Labor and Industries (Department) provide examples of excluded conditions, including conditions or disabilities resulting from:

• relationships with supervisors, coworkers, or the public;

• workload pressures; or

• objective, or subjective, stresses of employment.

Repeated exposure to traumatic events, none of which are a single traumatic event, is not an industrial injury or an occupational disease. Stress resulting from exposure to a single traumatic event, such as actual or threatened death or life-threatening injury, may constitute an industrial injury. The exposure may be from directly experiencing the event, witnessing it, or having extreme exposure to aversive details of the traumatic event.

The rule excluding claims based on mental conditions or mental disabilities caused by stress does not apply to occupational disease claims resulting from posttraumatic stress disorders (PTSD) of certain firefighters and law enforcement officers. For the exemption to apply to firefighters and law enforcement officers hired after June 7, 2018, the firefighter or law enforcement officer must have, as a condition of employment, submitted to a psychological exam that ruled out PTSD from preemployment exposures. If the employer does not provide the exam, the exemption applies.

Posttraumatic stress disorder is not considered an occupational disease if the disorder is directly attributed to disciplinary action, work evaluation, job transfer, layoff, demotion, termination, or similar action taken in good faith by an employer.

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Summary of Substitute Bill:

The rule excluding claims based on mental conditions or mental disabilities caused by stress does not apply to public safety telecommunicators who receive calls for assistance and dispatch emergency services. For public safety telecommunicators hired after the effective date of the act, the exemption applies only if the individual submitted to a psychological exam that ruled out the presence of PTSD from preemployment exposures. If the employer does not provide the exam, the exemption applies. "Public safety telecommunicators" are individuals who receive and respond to telephone or other electronic requests for emergency assistance and dispatch appropriate emergency responders.

Substitute Bill Compared to Original Bill:

The original bill used the term "911 emergency dispatch personnel."

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Appropriation: None.

Fiscal Note: Preliminary fiscal note available.

Effective Date of Substitute Bill: The bill takes effect 90 days after adjournment of the session in which the bill is passed.

Staff Summary of Public Testimony:

(In support) There is a misconception that 911 operators just dispatch calls, but they are actually the real first responders. They have to give advice, coach people, and do many things before a first responder shows up at the scene. They protect and save lives. They can get PTSD in the line of duty. They answer calls from dying people, they hear when crimes are being committed in real time, and they are exposed to a lot of trauma.

(Opposed) This area of the law continues to be amended in a piecemeal fashion based on job classification. The Department needs to take a wholistic approach and look at all the appropriate job classes that might be subject to this exemption. There is a cost to employers. The PTSD presumption for firefighters caused an increase in premiums.

Persons Testifying: (In support) Representative Corry, prime sponsor; Richard Kirton, Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials and National Emergency Number Association; and Julie Schilling.

(Opposed) Candice Bock, Association of Washington Cities.

Persons Signed In To Testify But Not Testifying: None.