REALTIME FILE 

Phase 5, CR105 Formal Hearing

Washington Employment Security Department

July 27, 2019 
 
CART/CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY:

ALTERNATIVE COMMUNICATION SERVICES, LLC
www.captionfamily.com

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This is being provided in rough draft format.  Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.

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>> APRIL:  Welcome, everyone.  To the Phase 5 Paid Family and Medical Leave rules hearing.  Pursuant to the authority given under Washington State law, RCW 58.04.215, Chapter 42.30 RCW of the open public meeting act, and Chapter 35 ‑‑ 34.05 of the Administrative Procedures Act, this hearing is hereby convened. 
For the record, this hearing is beginning at 1:04 p.m. on July 24th, 2019.  We are at 640 Woodland Square Loop in Lacey, Washington, in the Park Place conference room.  I want to thank everyone who is here and in attendance over the phone today.  
We filed our CR102 Phase 5 rule with a time scheduled for this hearing at 1:00 p.m., and it was posted on our agenda at 1:00 p.m. as well.  
Unfortunately, our website had a time for this meeting at 9:00 a.m., and we apologize for any convenience [sic].  This was our own oversight and has caused a little confusion.  We want to thank you, again, for your interest and attendance today. 
This hearing is to convene to consider testimony concerning Phase 5 of our Paid Family and Medical Leave rulemaking.  Rules in this phase relate to job protection, overpayment of benefits, and other topics related to establishing the program.  
The notice of this hearing was filed in the Washington State register on May 21st, 2019, as No. WSR 19‑11‑106.  It was sent to interested parties and was posted online.  
My name is April Amundson, and I am the rules and policy manager for Paid Family and Medical Leave division of Washington State Employment Security Department.  
I represent Commissioner Suzi Levine and the hearings officer presiding at this public rulemaking hearing.  
I'm also joined by Jason Barrett and Christina Streuli.  Jason Barrett is our lead policy analyst, and Christina Streuli is our rules coordinator.  
Please be advised that this hearing is being transcribed by our court reporter, and the transcript will become a part of the official rulemaking file.  To facilitate this transcription, when you make a comment, please state and spell your name before making your testimony.  
Please also note that this hearing is convened to consider comments on the proposed rules for Phase 5.  Because of the formal nature of this hearing, we are unlikely to answer any questions that you may ask.  
If you do ask a question, you'll be asked to pose your question as a comment.  If you have ‑‑ excuse me ‑‑ a process or administrative question, you can also send us an email at paidleave@esd.wa.gov.  That email address, again, is paidleave@esd.wa.gov.  
A concise explanatory statement of the agency's reasons for adoption of this rule, including a summary and response to all comments received after the publication of the proposed rules, will be placed in the permanent rulemaking file and posted online.  
This document will be sent to all interested parties who have signed up for and received the Paid Family and Medical Leave emails.  
We will begin with Jason Barrett, who will provide testimony and brief explanation of our proposal.  
>> JASON:  Thank you, April.  The Paid Family and Medical Leave Act was passed by the Washington State legislature in 2017.  On January 1st, 2019, employers were permitted to assess premiums on employee wages.  Applications for benefits will be accepted in 2020.  
We have split the rulemaking process into phases to align with this aggressive but achievable schedule.  This formal public hearing covers employment restoration, benefit overpayments, and other items related to program implementation.  
The rules spans several topics and include, at a high level, when and how an employee must be restored to employment following a period of Paid Family and Medical Leave, the process by which the department may collect benefits that were improperly paid to an employee, and other topics related to establishing the program.  
I encourage you also to read the text of the rules for a more robust understanding.  The draft rules are intended to interpret and clarify Title 50A of the Revised Code of Washington.  
Thank you very much for your interest and participation in our rulemaking efforts to implement this important new program.  
We look forward to hearing your comments today.  
>> APRIL:  Thank you, Jason.  
We will now start accepting testimony from those in attendance in our hearing.  To avoid talking over each other, we'll go ahead and take testimony from those in the room that wish to make comment.  We will then open the phone for comments once there is no comment from those in the room.  
When you testify, again, please speak into the microphone, state your name, spell your last name, and state who you represent if you are here in a representative capacity.  
We are now ready to accept public comments from those in the room.  
We will now go ahead and open the phone for public comment.  If you have muted yourself and wish to make comment on our rules, please remember to unmute yourself.  Again, state your name, spell your last name, and state who you represent if you are here in a representative capacity.  
I know I did this earlier.  I just want to verify that people over the phone can hear me.  Can someone unmute their phone and confirm that you can hear me.  
>>  Patricia Foshaug, Evergreen College HR.  I can hear you. 
>> APRIL:  Thank you.  Patricia, are you making comment today?  
>>  No.  Not at this point.  I was hoping to find out more about how the process is working, but you already addressed that at the beginning, so ‑‑ 
>> APRIL:  Thank you.  
We are open for public comment, so if you are on the phone or in the room, please feel free to make comment if you wish to do so.  
I wanted to express an opportunity for folks who wish to make comment about our Phase 5 rulemaking to go ahead and do so.  Our floor is open for any comments that you may have.  
One more time before we conclude our hearing today, if anybody wishes to make comment, please feel free to do so.  
Again, I want to express my gratitude for people appearing in hearing ‑‑ in person as well as over the phone.  We do appreciate all the participation that individuals have provided to our rulemaking.  We do rely on stakeholder feedback to make the best possible rules for our program.  
In conclusion, this hearing was convened to consider testimony on Phase 5 of the Paid Family and Medical Leave rulemaking related to job protection, overpayment of benefits, and other topics related to establishing our program.  
All oral testimony presented at this hearing in written submissions will become part of the official record.  As a reminder, you can provide comments on our open gov website to ‑‑ or email us to provide your comments.  The deadline for these submissions of written comments is July 26th, 2019.  That is this Friday at 5:00 p.m. 
You can submit written comments online by entering BIT.LJ./commentforum ‑‑ that's c‑o‑m‑m‑e‑n‑t‑f‑o‑r‑u‑m ‑‑ in your browser.  
Comments must be received by 5:00 p.m. on Friday.  That deadline to be considered is part of our rulemaking efforts.  
A final decision regarding adoption of these proposed rulemaking will be made after all testimony and written comments have been fully considered with a target date of July 31st, 2019.  
We are also hosting a hearing this Friday in Spokane, so if you wish to attend by phone or in person at that location, feel free to visit our open gov website to view the date and time for that information.  
On behalf of Commissioner Suzi Levine, thank you for participating in this hearing.  This hearing is adjourned at 1:17 p.m. on July 24th, 2019.  Thank you very much. 
[End of meeting]