Effective July 1, 2025, Washington State will protect employees from coercion based on immigration status. Specifically, Senate Bill 5104 prohibits employers from exploiting a worker’s immigration status in furtherance of the...more
Effective January 1, 2026, Washington SB 5101 will require employers to provide leave and safety accommodations to employees who are victims of a hate crime or have a family member who is a victim of a hate crime....more
6/4/2025
/ Discrimination ,
Domestic Violence ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Hate Crimes ,
New Legislation ,
Paid Leave ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
State Labor Laws ,
Unpaid Leave ,
Washington
Effective January 1, 2027, SB 5217 expands Washington’s Healthy Starts Act (“Act”) to apply the law to employers of any size, require scheduling flexibility for postpartum appointments, mandate paid lactation accommodation...more
Washington employers take note: Significant changes to the Washington Paid Family and Medical Leave (WA PFML) law are on the horizon that will impact every employer in the Evergreen State. The bill amending the law, HB 1213,...more
It’s the season for legislative updates – and Washington State lawmakers are no exception. Job postings have recently been an area of focus in state and local laws. Two recent updates in Washington State impose new...more
As many Washington employers are acutely aware, there exists sparse statutory guidance on how employers must respond to personnel file requests by their employees – and no statutory definition of what constitutes a “personnel...more
5/23/2025
/ Employee Privacy Rights ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Employment Policies ,
Hiring & Firing ,
New Legislation ,
Personnel Records ,
Private Right of Action ,
State Labor Laws ,
Termination ,
Washington
On April 25, 2025, Washington State Governor Bob Ferguson signed House Bill 1875 into law. The amendment will become effective July 27, 2025. The new law amends Revised Code of Washington § 49.46.210 to expand the reasons for...more
4/29/2025
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Rights ,
Employees ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Immigration ,
Immigration Procedures ,
New Legislation ,
Paid Sick Leave ,
State Labor Laws ,
Washington
No, no, not who to vote for. Rather, employers should brush up on laws and regulations that entitle employees to time off to vote or to serve as an election official. What time off do you need to give employees?...more
On June 8, 2021, the Sonoma County, California Board of Supervisors enacted an urgency ordinance that extends and amends – in part retroactively to January 1, 2021 – its emergency paid sick leave (EPSL) ordinance....more
Dear Littler: Election Day is coming up in a few weeks, and I’ve been getting questions from our managers in various branches about voting-related leave for employees. Our company has operations in more than a dozen states,...more