HB 2695 — Layoff notices/agricultural

Summary

Exempting certain agricultural activities from mass layoff notice requirements.

Bill Text

Compared against the Revised Code of Washington as published AI-generated reading aid — verify against the official bill.

This bill amends 2 section(s) of the Revised Code of Washington: RCW 49.45.010; RCW 49.45.030.

• RCW 49.45.010

  units that will result in an employment loss for 50 or more employees, excluding part-time employees. (5) "Commissioner" means the commissioner of the employment security department. (6) "Department" means the employment security department. (7) "Employee" means a person employed in this state by an employer. "Employee" includes part-time employees. (8) "Employer" means a person who employs 50 or more employees in this state, excluding part-time employees. "Employer" does not include the state or any political subdivision thereof, including any unit of local government. (9)(a) "Employment loss" means: (i) An employment termination, other than a discharge for cause, voluntary separation, or retirement; (ii) A layoff exceeding six months; or (iii) A reduction in hours of more than 50 percent of work of individual employees during each month of a six-month period. (b) "Employment loss" does not include instances when a business closing or mass layoff is the result of the relocation or consolidation of part or all of the employer's business and, before the business closing or mass layoff, the employer offers to transfer the employee to a different site of employment within a reasonable commuting distance, as defined by the department, with no more than a six-month break in employment. (10) "Mass layoff" means a reduction in employment force that is not the result of a business closing and results in an employment loss during any 30-day period of 50 or more employees, excluding part-time employees. (11) "Part-time employee" means an employee who is employed for an average of fewer than 20 hours per week, or an employee who has been employed for fewer than six of the twelve months preceding the date on which notice is required. However, if an applicable collective bargaining agreement defines a part-time employee, such definition shall supersede the definition in this subsection. (12) "Single site of employment" means a single location or a group of contiguous locations, such as a group of structures that form a campus or business park or separate facilities across the street from each other. (13) "Agricultural labor" means: (a) Services performed on a farm, in the employ of any person, in connection with the cultivation of the soil, or in connection with raising or harvesting any agricultural or horticultural commodity, including raising, shearing, feeding, caring for, training, and management of livestock, bees, poultry, and furbearing animals and wildlife, or in the employ of the owner or tenant or other operator of a farm in connection with the operation, management, conservation, improvement, or maintenance of such farm and its tools and equipment; or (b) Services performed: (i) In packing, packaging, grading, storing, or delivering to storage, or to market or to a carrier for transportation to market, any agricultural or horticultural commodity incidental to ordinary farming operations; or (ii) in commercial packing houses, commercial storage establishments, commercial canning, commercial freezing, or any other commercial processing or with respect to services performed in connection with the cultivation, raising, harvesting, and processing of oysters or raising and harvesting of mushrooms or in connection with any agricultural or horticultural commodity.

  amended

• RCW 49.45.030

  or → an t 02 n c si id on y ee bu r re f b ea (i) A construction project and the affected employees were hired with the understanding that their employment was limited to the duration of a particular portion of that construction project; or (ii) A multiemployer construction project and the only affected employees are subject to a full union referral or dispatch system; or (e) The affected employees are employed in agricultural labor and were hired with the understanding, confirmed in writing at the time of hire, that their employment was limited to the duration of a specific agricultural season or harvest period, and the estimated end date of employment was disclosed in advance based on the anticipated completion of harvest or related seasonal activities --- END ---

  amended

Action History

1. January 28, 2026

   First reading, referred to Labor & Workplace Standards.

Sponsors

• (Dufault) · Primary

Subjects