AN ACT Relating to establishing equitable access to the workers' compensation stay-at-work program by allowing employers to offer off-site light duty return to work opportunities to injured workers; amending RCW 51.32.090; creating a new section; and providing an effective date.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. (1) The state established the stay-at-work program to reduce long-term disability and the cost of injuries by incentivizing employers to provide injured workers light duty and transitional return-to-work opportunities. Data from the department of labor and industries indicates that the program has lowered the risk of long-term disability and can improve mental health and well-being for workers who return to positions that allow for the time necessary for healing and rehabilitation.

(2) However, current law only allows for light duty or transitional return to work with the employer of injury, limiting opportunities and creating inequities for workers and employers. Small employers are less likely to have suitable light duty jobs. Workers, particularly in small businesses, are less likely to have access to remote light duty work. Injured workers who move out-of-state are also less likely to have access to return-to-work opportunities, especially when the employer of injury cannot offer remote work options.

(3) The legislature hereby intends to provide more opportunities for workers to access return to work and for employers to take advantage of the stay-at-work program by allowing flexibility in matching injured workers to temporary positions with local nonprofits to perform light duty work. Workers eligible for the expanded program pursuant to RCW 51.32.090(4)(m) will receive a written notice in their preferred language that they have a right to reject a specific light duty job with a specific nonprofit. This approach preserves all protections for injured workers, reduces claim costs, transitions workers back to productive work more quickly while allowing for recuperation, and benefits local nonprofits by providing experienced workers for important service roles.

(2) Any compensation payable under this section for children not in the custody of the injured worker as of the date of injury shall be payable only to such person as actually is providing the support for such child or children pursuant to the order of a court of record providing for support of such child or children.

(3)(a) As soon as recovery is so complete that the present earning power of the worker, at any kind of work, is restored to that existing at the time of the occurrence of the injury, the payments shall cease. If and so long as the present earning power is only partially restored, the payments shall:

(ii) For claims for injuries occurring on or after May 7, 1993, equal eighty percent of the actual difference between the worker's present wages and earning power at the time of injury, but: (A) The total of these payments and the worker's present wages may not exceed one hundred fifty percent of the average monthly wage in the state as computed under RCW 51.08.018; (B) the payments may not exceed one hundred percent of the entitlement as computed under subsection (1) of this section; and (C) the payments may not be less than the worker would have received if (a)(i) of this subsection had been applicable to the worker's claim.

(4)(a) The legislature finds that long-term disability and the cost of injuries is significantly reduced when injured workers remain at work following their injury. To encourage employers at the time of injury to provide light duty or transitional work for their workers, wage subsidies and other incentives are made available to employers insured with the department.

(b)(i) Whenever the employer of injury requests that a worker who is entitled to temporary total disability under this chapter be certified by the attending provider as able to perform available work other than his or her usual work, the employer shall furnish to the attending provider, with a contemporaneous copy to the worker in their preferred language, a ((statement describing the))written job description of the light duty or transitional work available with the employer of injury, or with a nonprofit organization or charity pursuant to (m) of this subsection, in terms that will enable the attending provider to relate the activities of the job to the worker's disability. The attending provider shall then determine whether the worker is able to perform the work described. If more than 21 calendar days have passed since the attending provider's last appointment with the worker, the attending provider may meet with the worker, if the attending provider deems necessary, to determine whether the worker is able to perform the work. The attending provider's determination must be shared with both the worker and employer.

(ii) The worker shall accept or decline the light duty job offer within seven days after receiving notification that the attending provider has approved the job description. Failure to timely accept a valid light duty job offer shall result in termination of temporary total disability benefits except as described under (m)(v) of this subsection.

(iii) The worker's temporary total disability payments shall continue until the worker is released by ((his or her))their attending provider for the work, and begins the light duty work with the employer of injury or with a nonprofit organization or charity pursuant to (m) of this subsection. If the light duty or transitional work thereafter comes to an end before the worker's recovery is sufficient in the judgment of his or her attending provider to permit him or her to return to his or her usual job, or to perform other available work offered ((by the employer of injury))pursuant to this section, the worker's temporary total disability payments shall be resumed. Should the ((available))light duty work ((described)), once undertaken by the worker, impede his or her recovery to the extent that in the judgment of his or her attending provider he or she should not continue to work, the worker's temporary total disability payments shall be resumed when the worker ceases such work.

(c) To further encourage employers to maintain the employment of their injured workers, an employer insured with the department and that offers work to a worker pursuant to this subsection (4) shall be eligible for reimbursement of the injured worker's wages for light duty or transitional work equal to ((fifty))50 percent of the basic, gross wages paid for that work, for a maximum of ((sixty-six))66 workdays within a consecutive ((twenty-four month))24-month period. In no event may the wage subsidies paid to an employer on a claim exceed ((ten thousand dollars))$10,000. Wage subsidies shall be calculated using the worker's basic hourly wages or basic salary, and no subsidy shall be paid for any other form of compensation or payment to the worker such as tips, commissions, bonuses, board, housing, fuel, health care, dental care, vision care, per diem, reimbursements for work-related expenses, or any other payments. An employer may not, under any circumstances, receive a wage subsidy for a day in which the worker did not actually perform any work, regardless of whether or not the employer paid the worker wages for that day.

(d) If an employer insured with the department offers a worker work pursuant to this subsection (4) and the worker must be provided with training or instruction to be qualified to perform the offered work, the employer shall be eligible for a reimbursement from the department for any tuition, books, fees, and materials required for that training or instruction, up to a maximum of ((one thousand dollars))$1,000. Reimbursing an employer for the costs of such training or instruction does not constitute a determination by the department that the worker is eligible for vocational services authorized by RCW 51.32.095 and 51.32.099.

(e) If an employer insured with the department offers a worker work pursuant to this subsection (4), and the employer provides the worker with clothing that is necessary to allow the worker to perform the offered work, the employer shall be eligible for reimbursement for such clothing from the department, up to a maximum of ((four hundred dollars))$400. However, an employer shall not receive reimbursement for any clothing it provided to the worker that it normally provides to its workers. The clothing purchased for the worker shall become the worker's property once the work comes to an end.

(f) If an employer insured with the department offers a worker work pursuant to this subsection (4) and the worker must be provided with tools or equipment to perform the offered work, the employer shall be eligible for a reimbursement from the department for such tools and equipment and related costs as determined by department rule, up to a maximum of ((two thousand five hundred dollars))$2,500. An employer shall not be reimbursed for any tools or equipment purchased prior to offering the work to the worker pursuant to this subsection (4). An employer shall not be reimbursed for any tools or equipment that it normally provides to its workers. The tools and equipment shall be the property of the employer.

(g) An employer may offer work to a worker pursuant to this subsection (4) more than once, but in no event may the employer receive wage subsidies for more than ((sixty-six))66 days of work in a consecutive ((twenty-four month))24-month period under one claim. An employer may continue to offer work pursuant to this subsection (4) after the worker has performed ((sixty-six))66 days of work, but the employer shall not be eligible to receive wage subsidies for such work.

(h) An employer shall not receive any wage subsidies or reimbursement of any expenses pursuant to this subsection (4) unless the employer has completed and submitted the reimbursement request on forms developed by the department, along with all related information required by department rules. No wage subsidy or reimbursement shall be paid to an employer who fails to submit a form for such payment within one year of the date the work was performed. In no event shall an employer receive wage subsidy payments or reimbursements of any expenses pursuant to this subsection (4) unless the worker's attending provider has restricted him or her from performing his or her usual work and the worker's attending provider has released him or her to perform the work offered.

(j) Once the worker returns to work under the terms of this subsection (4), ((he or she))the worker shall not be assigned by the employer to work other than the available work described ((without the worker's written consent, or)) without prior review and approval by the worker's attending provider. An employer who directs a claimant to perform work other than that approved by the attending provider and without the approval of the worker's attending provider shall not receive any wage subsidy or other reimbursements for such work.

(k) If the worker returns to work under this subsection (4), any employee health and welfare benefits that the worker was receiving at the time of injury shall continue or be resumed at the level provided at the time of injury. Such benefits shall not be continued or resumed if to do so is inconsistent with the terms of the benefit program, or with the terms of the collective bargaining agreement currently in force.

(l) In the event of any dispute as to the validity of the work offered or as to the worker's ability to perform the available work offered by the employer, the department shall make the final determination pursuant to an order that contains the notice required by RCW 51.52.060 and that is subject to appeal subject to RCW 51.52.050.

(m) An employer with 100 or fewer employees may offer light duty return to work to a worker pursuant to this subsection (4) with an established nonprofit organization or charity pursuant to (n) of this subsection, subject to the following parameters and conditions:

(i) The employer of injury may not disclose the worker's medical restrictions with the nonprofit organization or charity without the worker's written consent. If the worker does not consent to the disclosure of their medical restrictions with the nonprofit organizationor charity, any approved light duty work must be with the employer of injury;

(v) The injured worker does not forfeit any protections or benefits afforded to them under this title, and the injured worker may reject a light duty return-to-work offer or otherwise terminate the light duty return to work with the nonprofit organization or charity, in which case the injured worker's temporary total disability payments must continue or be resumed;

(vi) Except as otherwise provided under this subsection (4)(m), the offer of light duty return to work with the nonprofit organization or charity is subject to the same parameters and conditions as an offer of available work with the employer of injury;

(viii) The worker's experience gained through any light duty work under this subsection (4)(m) with the nonprofit organization or charity may not be construed as acquisition of transferable skills and does not disqualify the injured worker from accessing vocational rehabilitation services or other retraining programs available under this title.

(n)(i) To offer light duty, transitional work with a nonprofit organization or charity under (m) of this subsection, the employer of injury must contract with a return-to-work employment agency approved by the department or work with a nonprofit organization or charity listed as active on a secretary of state website. The department must develop the criteria in rule for a return-to-work employment agency to receive department approval under this subsection.

(ii) The department must work with the vocational rehabilitation advisory committee established in RCW 51.32.096 to research and report on meaningful return-to-work outcomes and the benefits of return to work on workers' mental health. The advisory committee must also study the quality of the work and benefits to the worker of transitional return to work with nonprofit organizations and make recommendations for improving outcomes. The report must be submitted to the workers' compensation advisory committee by October 31, 2029, for consideration of additional legislation.

(6) The department shall create a Washington stay-at-work account which shall be funded by assessments of employers insured through the state fund for the costs of the payments authorized by subsection (4) of this section and for the cost of creating a reserve for anticipated liabilities. Employers may collect up to one-half the fund assessment from workers.

(7) No worker shall receive compensation for or during the day on which injury was received or the three days following the same, unless his or her disability shall continue for a period of ((fourteen))14 consecutive calendar days from date of injury: PROVIDED, That attempts to return to work in the first ((fourteen))14 days following the injury shall not serve to break the continuity of the period of disability if the disability continues ((fourteen))14 days after the injury occurs.

(8) Should a worker suffer a temporary total disability and should his or her employer at the time of the injury continue to pay him or her the wages which he or she was earning at the time of such injury, such injured worker shall not receive any payment provided in subsection (1) of this section during the period his or her employer shall so pay such wages: PROVIDED, That holiday pay, vacation pay, sick leave, or other similar benefits shall not be deemed to be payments by the employer for the purposes of this subsection.

(b) For dates of injury or disease manifestation after July 1, 2008, be less than ((fifteen))15 percent of the average monthly wage in the state as computed under RCW 51.08.018 plus an additional ((ten dollars))$10 per month if the worker is married and an additional ((ten dollars))$10 per month for each child of the worker up to a maximum of five children. However, if the monthly payment computed under this subsection (9)(b) is greater than ((one hundred))100 percent of the wages of the worker as determined under RCW 51.08.178, the monthly payment due to the worker shall be equal to the greater of the monthly wages of the worker or the minimum benefit set forth in this section on June 30, 2008.

	AFTER	PERCENTAGE
	June 30, 1993	105%
	June 30, 1994	110%
	June 30, 1995	115%
	June 30, 1996	120%