Readers of AWC’s Legislative Bulletin know that several HR and labor bills were passed in the last legislative session, including new labor laws protecting employees during health emergencies and a new system for handling grievance arbitrations for law enforcement officers.

HELSA guidance

SB 5115, known as the Health Emergency Labor Standards Act (HELSA), establishes a number of new worker protections that apply during declared public health emergencies for infectious contagious diseases, including COVID-19. The new worker standards include:

• A presumption of occupational disease for frontline workers for workers’ compensation;
• Preventing related workers’ comp payments from impacting employer experience ratings;
• Requiring large employers to report related infection rates to the Department of Labor & Industries (L&I);
• Provisions requiring employers to provide notice potential exposure to employees; and
• Prohibiting workplace discrimination against high risk-employees for seeking accommodations or leave options during the emergency.

We last wrote about the bill here.

Since the bill passed, L&I has been working on implementation of the new law. In mid-August, L&I released emergency rules aiming to implement HELSA during the current COVID-19 health emergency while permanent rules are developed. The emergency rules define terms, outline how large employers must report infections, emphasize that employees are not required to disclose medical conditions, outline requirements for how employers need to inform employees of potential exposures within one business day and that employees and contractors be allowed to voluntarily use personal protective equipment. These emergency rules expire on December 8, 2021.

L&I has also initiated permanent rulemaking for HELSA implementation rules. However, stakeholder meeting dates have yet to be announced. The agency has also released a guidance document that advises employers on how to protect high-risk employees from discrimination under the new HELSA rules. Elements of HELSA have also been incorporated into COVID-19 workplace safety guidance released by L&I in mid-September, including provisions about giving written notice to potentially exposed employees and reaffirming the right of employees to voluntarily wear personal protective equipment.

Law enforcement grievance arbitrations

SB 5055 established a roster of specialized law enforcement grievance arbitrators at the Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) to handle all disciplinary grievances for police officers starting in January 2022. All police discipline matters that go to arbitration must use PERC’s new arbitrators rather then choose their own. The goal of the bill was to eliminate the practice of privately retained arbitrators “splitting the difference” in discipline decisions to keep both sides (officers’ unions and the city) happy with the goal of being retained for future cases, rather than deciding discipline cases based solely on the facts. We last wrote about the bill’s passage in the March Bulletin and the April Bulletin.

PERC recently released a new website for the new police arbitration roster created by SB 5055. The website explains the new law, how PERC’s arbitration process works, and provides information for how prospective arbitrators can get appointed to the roster so they can work on police grievance cases. The site lists the 18 arbitrators that have already been named to the roster. Those arbitrators will be handling police grievance arbitration cases going forward. There are also links to police arbitration decisions that have been made available to the public under the new law.