An Overview of New Personnel-Associated Payments Adopted within the 2021 Common Legislative Session

July 12, 2021
by

Flannary Collins

Category:

Personnel policy
,
New laws and regulations

In response to COVID-19 and the effects of forest fires, several new holiday-related bills were passed in the past legislature. This blog provides an overview of these vacation-related bills, as well as a new state holiday that has been carried over into SHB 1016.

Extended definition of family members under the Paid Family and Sick Leave Program

Effective July 25, 2021, ESSB 5097 expands coverage of the Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) program, which enables qualified employees to pay a portion of their wages if they miss work for certain qualifying events, including caring for one Family member (ie, child, grandchild, grandparent, parent, sibling, or spouse) affected by a serious illness or injury.

ESSB 5097 expands the definition of family member to include a person whose relationship with the employee creates the expectation that the employee will take care of that person, and the person is dependent on the employee’s care, whether or not they live in the employee’s household Not.

The bill also requires the Department of Occupational Safety and Health to report certain metrics to Washington state lawmakers, including the number of people who have taken PFML vacation due to the changed definition of family members. If the number of people who take vacation as part of this program change exceeds 500 in a calendar year before July 1, 2023, the costs for the additional vacation must be paid into the family and sick leave insurance account by the general health insurance fund.

Pandemic Vacation Allowances for Workers and Small Businesses

To be eligible for PFML paid benefits, an employee must have worked 820 hours or more during the qualifying period. Either the first four of the last five complete calendar quarters or the last four complete calendar quarters are deemed to be the “qualification period”.

Many Washington workers who have paid into the PFML program currently do not have access to paid vacation benefits due to pandemic layoffs, vacation, closings, etc., failing to meet the 820-hour eligibility threshold, lawmakers passed in SSB 1073 a pandemic vacation allowance employee grant to “provide financial assistance to employees who are otherwise not eligible for paid family and sick leave due to the impact of COVID-19 on their ability to meet the hours worked threshold”.

Employee pandemic education grants are available to employees who meet the following criteria:

• Failure to meet the PFML eligibility threshold for hours worked in 2020 and the first quarter of 2021;
• Has met the eligibility requirement through hours worked in 2019 and in the first quarter of 2020; and
• Were not dismissed from employment due to misconduct or voluntary separation unrelated to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vacation entitlements by employees in the period 2021 to March 31, 2022 may be eligible for a grant. Starting August 1, 2021, employees can file an application with the Employment Security Department, the state division that runs the paid family and sick leave program.

Recognizing “that the costs associated with employees on leave who have received or will receive an employee grant for pandemic leave allowance…. Employers (including local governments) with fewer than 150 employees are eligible for employer grants to cover the following costs related to an employee receiving PFML:

• $ 3,000 for hiring a temporary worker to replace the employee on PFML; or
• Up to $ 1,000 for significant wage-related costs associated with an employee using PFML, such as: B. paying an additional wage to an existing employee or purchasing additional equipment.

The job security department describes the approval process on their new small business support website.

Extended employment protection for volunteer firefighters in accordance with the Occupational Safety and Health Act

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Act (IWA), employers with at least 20 full-time equivalents are prohibited from disciplining or dismissing volunteer firefighters because they have been taken in connection with an emergency call. However, during the 2020 forest fires in central Washington, the IWA’s definition of “volunteer” was found to be too narrow, as the volunteer firefighter had to be unpaid for firefighting duties and not already at work to fight the fire was called. This narrow definition meant that trained volunteer firefighters could not be released from their job to fight the forest fires in 2020 due to a lack of employment protection according to IWA.

To address this issue, SSB 5384 is redefining a volunteer firefighter as one who falls under the Volunteer Firefighters ‘and Reserve Officers’ Pension and Relief Scheme and who voluntarily performs assigned or authorized firefighter duties, whether compensated or not. In addition, the draft law extends IWA occupational safety to the following situations:

• If the firefighter is already on duty when he is called to fight the fire, he can leave his place of work to comply with a fire service as long as he has informed his employer of his firefighter status and his intention to serve as a volunteer.
• If the firefighter is not already on duty when he is called to fight the fire, he must have been instructed to remain in his place by the commanding office at the scene of the fire.

Juniteenth: New national holiday

Washington State legislature passed SHB 1016, making Juniteenth (June 19) a paid state holiday with effect from July 2021. President Joe Biden also signed law making June thenth a federal holiday. The June 19 date commemorates the day in 1865 when knowledge of the Emancipation Proclamation and the abolition of slavery reached the last remaining enslaved people in Galveston, Texas.

While local governments are not required to adhere to the federal or state public holiday schedule, many do, and RCW 1.16.050 (6) empowers the local legislature to set their local government holiday schedules. Examples of jurisdictions that have introduced Juneteenth as a paid holiday for local government employees include Bremerton and King Counties.

Conclusion

Local governments are under no obligation to take specific action in response to these new laws unless they wish to take advantage of the Small Business Vacation Help Grant or introduce June 15 as a paid holiday for local government employees. Nonetheless, local employers should familiarize themselves with the new laws in order to educate their employees, and in some cases volunteers, of their vacation options and safeguards.

MRSC is a private, not-for-profit organization serving local government in Washington State. Eligible government agencies in Washington state can use our free Ask MRSC in-person service to get answers to legal, political, or financial questions.

About Flannary Collins

Flannary Collins is the executive attorney for MRSC. Flannary joined MRSC as a legal advisor in August 2013 after serving as assistant city attorney for the City of Shoreline, where she advised all city departments on a variety of matters.

At MRSC, Flannary is happy to provide legal advice to communities on all community matters, including OPMA, PRA, and human resources. She also serves on the WSAMA Board of Directors as Secretary-Treasurer.

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