Washington—Updates 4 Notices

Washington’s Department of Labor has updated the following labor law posters: Minimum Wage, Workers’ Rights on the Job, Workers’ Compensation and Job Safety and Health.

Your Rights as a Worker poster combines information from two previous posters – Your Rights as a Non-Agricultural Worker and Your Rights as an Agricultural Worker. It has been rewritten to include new information.

The mandatory poster now includes information about new family leave laws for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking and for spouses of military personnel.

A warning that employers may not fire or retaliate against employees for using leave now applies to the entire family care and family leave the section, instead of just the Washington Family Care Act as on the previous poster. Information about teen work hours has been condensed and work hours chart has been removed from the updated poster.

In the mandatory Job Safety and Health poster, the penalty section has been revised and a section on “Fatality or Hospitalization” has been added. A section explaining that it is illegal for employers to retaliate against employees who file complaints has been expanded.

The mandatory Workers’ Compensation poster now includes the term “work-related medical condition”, which was referred to as “injury or occupational disease” on the previous poster. “Doctor” has been changed to a “health-care provider” on the updated poster.

In addition, the definition of “qualified health-care providers” has been expanded to include “physician assistants” and “advanced registered nurse practitioners” on the updated Workers’ Compensation poster.

An increase in Washington’s minimum wage from $8.07 per hour to $8.55 per hour effective Jan. 1, 2009 is included in a revised Minimum Wage poster. The minimum wage for workers aged 14 or 15 increased from $6.86 per hour to $7.27 per hour.

The Minimum Wage poster is not required but is recommended to be posted by the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries.