L&I Issues Policy Statement on Volunteer Workers, Subcontractors

Tuesday, October 10, 2017 | 0

The Washington state Department of Labor & Industries issued a policy statement, noting changes to coverage rules for volunteers and declaring provisions to determine the status of some subcontractors as unnecessary.

The department said in a notice filed in the Washington State Register that a policy regarding work comp coverage for volunteers was revised before it was made permanent in August 2016 by eliminating a reference to student volunteers in “K-12 and beyond.”

L&I said the reference was not necessary to define an institution of higher learning. L&I offers medical aid coverage to student volunteers as well as students in school-sponsored, unpaid internships. Student volunteers need to be enrolled in a public or private K-12 school or an institute of higher education, according to a page on the department's website.

L&I announced the repeal of Policy 61.23 regarding the process to determine the status of a subcontractor providing only labor, which it said is “incorrect and outdated due to law changes in 2008.”

L&I said the policy was based on statutes in effect in 2008 that were repealed by lawmakers that year.

The Legislature in 2008 passed House Bill 3122, which revised the process for determining whether a person was an employee of a contractor.