In this issue:

• COVID: presumptive eligibility for workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance
• Negotiations are starting soon!
• Important update: Unfair Labor Practice!

COVID: Presumptive eligibility for workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance

On May 11, 2021, Gov. Jay Inslee signed Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill (ESSB) 5115, also known as the Health Emergency Labor Standards Act (HELSA), and ESSB 5190 into law, making them effective immediately.

The new laws apply during public health emergencies involving infectious or contagious diseases, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. ESSB 5190 provides presumptive coverage to health care workers exposed to COVID-19 starting Feb. 29, 2020, when Gov. Inslee declared a state of emergency. The HELSA bill applies to frontline workers when both the exposure occurs and the claim is filed on or after May 11, 2021, when the new laws took effect. The new laws mean that it will be presumed health care and frontline workers contracted a contagious or infectious disease at work when they file a workers’ compensation claim for the disease and the disease is the subject of a public health emergency. Claims will be decided based on the new laws.

Background: This bill was sponsored by Senator Jeff Holy (R‑Spokane) after he met with several WSNA nurses, who were told by their employers they didn’t contract COVID-19 on the job. As a result, these nurses were denied benefits by their employers, like workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance. Senator Holy worked with WSNA on legislation to address this problem. Details of the bill include.

When a nurse or health care worker contracts the illness that is the subject of a state or federal health emergency, it is presumed they got it at work. This presumption applies to workers’ compensation (for time off work due to illness) and unemployment insur­ance (for time off work due to quarantine).

The Washington State Depart­ment of Labor & Industries (L&I) decides if a worker quali­fies for workers’ compensation — not employers or third-party administrators. An employer must have ​“clear and convincing” evidence (the strongest evidence standard in state law) to rebut this presumption.

Presumptive eligibility has already been available to firefighters for certain work-related diseases, as well as workers at the Hanford nuclear site near the Tri-Cities. This new presumption for nurses and health care workers recognizes the unique hazards we face on the front lines of disease outbreaks while we treat patients who have the illness that is the subject of a state or federal health emergency.

Did you contract COVID-19 at work? File for workers’ compensation now and retroactively:

If you were out sick with a COVID-19 infection that you believe was contracted at work, we encourage you to file a workers’ compensation claim with L&I. L&I or your self-insured employer must receive your Report of Accident within 1 year of your injury date to file a claim. L&I must receive it within two years from the date of your doctor's diagnosis for occupational disease claims.

For healthcare workers, once a claim is allowed, workers may be eligible for medical and disability benefits. Temporary compensation, or time-loss benefits, begins the earliest of the following:

• The first missed workday due to symptoms
• The day the worker was quarantined by a medical provider or public health official
• The day the worker received a positive test result confirming contraction of the infectious or contagious disease.

You can also receive retroactive back pay for time-loss, which is especially valuable to nurses who exhausted their paid time off prior to acquiring COVID-19 and were told they had to take unpaid leave. Even if you were only out of work for a few days, applying for workers' compensation now will give you future coverage, including medical coverage, for any long-haul or long-term side effects of COVID-19. Once it is deemed a work-related illness, your claim will not be closed if you need further treatment. You will be allowed time to complete your treatment plan when your medical services resume.

PeaceHealth is Self-Insured

To file a workers’ compensation claim at St Joseph’s you need to file an SIF-2, which can be found on the hospital intranet. If you don’t have access to a hospital computer, you can also file through the L&I link FileFast.

Difficulties with your Claim:

If you are having difficulty with the workers' compensation claim, because your employer is self-insured, you can contact the Ombuds Office for Self-Insured Injured Workers.

Office of the Self-Insured Ombuds, Department of Labor & Industries
Email: SIOmbuds@Lni.wa.gov
Toll-free phone: 1-888-317-0493
Fax: 253-596-3885

Mailing address:
Washington State Department of Labor & Industries
Office of the Ombuds for Injured Workers of Self-Insured Employers
950 Broadway Suite 200
Tacoma WA 98402

Negotiations are starting soon!

The WSNA Team is actively preparing for negotiations based on your surveys, past or current grievances during this contract cycle, Conference Committee topics, and other matters that you have brought forward to the WSNA Officers. We plan to meet in person rather than virtually although this will be dependent on where we are with the COVID pandemic.

Scheduled Dates:
February 14-15
February 25
March 11
March 14-15
March 28-29

Your WSNA Negotiation Team:
Laura Bayes, Co-Chair, 4-South
Geri Falacy, Secretary, Pre-Admit Screening
Tracy Pullar, Co-Communications, PCU
Robin Cully, Grievance Officer, ED
Rhonda Tull, Grievance Officer, SSU
Grace Schackel, Grievance Officer, Cath Lab
Darlyce Jerde, Health and Safety, PCU
Jana Travenshek, Team Member, Critical Care Float Pool

As many of you recall, in August 2021, PeaceHealth announced that they were unilaterally implementing a COVID vaccine mandate. This included a decision to place nurses with religious or medical exemptions on unpaid leaves of absence as of September 1. WSNA made three attempts to negotiate with PeaceHealth and PeaceHealth stopped responding to us. PeaceHealth is legally obligated to bargain with the Union. Because they refused, we filed an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

After several months of waiting, the regional office of the National Labor Relations Board has determined that it will send on our unfair labor practice charge to its Division of Advice. This includes charges filed by WSNA for St. Joseph, United General, Peace Island, Southwest, and St. John, and the charges filed by the Oregon Nurses Association, the Alaska Nurses Association, and SEIU.

Specifically, the Division of Advice will evaluate whether the unions waived the right to bargain over PeaceHealth’s vaccine mandate because of broad and ambiguous language in the contract regarding the Hospital’s right to change policies.

We don’t have a clear answer yet and we don’t have a timeline of when we will receive IT. But the case is still alive and under consideration. We are optimistic that the Division of Advice will confirm what we know to be true – that PeaceHealth violated the law when it imposed its unlawful vaccine mandate without bargaining fully with WSNA and used that as a justification to unilaterally place many nurses on a leave of absence at a time of critically low staffing.

WSNA filed a concurrent grievance that is still in process.

Questions? Contact WSNA Nurse Representative Hanna Welander at hwelander@wsna.org.