Making sense of Washington's new Health Emergency Labor Standards Act

Governor Jay Inslee recently signed the Health Emergency Labor Standards Act (HELSA), a sweeping worker protection bill passed by the state legislature. The Act amends the state's workers' compensation and industrial health and safety statutes to provide automatic protections for certain workers and to impose new notification and reporting requirements on employers in the event of a public health emergency.

The law, signed May 11, is set to take effect immediately, although some provisions will require the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) to issue operative regulations and guidance before they can be fully implemented.

Presumptive workers' compensation coverage

As defined in the Act, a "public health emergency" occurs whenever there's a statewide "declaration or order concerning any infectious or contagious diseases" issued by the governor or as part of a national or regional state of emergency declared by the president of the United States, including the current state of emergency due to the still ongoing coronavirus pandemic.