The 2025 legislative session ended on April 27, 2025, with Washington Governor Bob Ferguson signing multiple employment-related bills into law. We separately reported on three of those bills in our last newsletter (expansion of the Fair Chance Act, paid leave for immigration proceedings, and prohibition of driver’s license requirements); today’s newsletter includes individual articles on two more significant bills (new requirements for personnel files and Washington’s mini-WARN Act). Below are several additional bills of interest to employers.
SHB 1121 (working hours for 16- and 17-year-olds): Requires the Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) to allow 16- and 17-year-olds enrolled in a career and technical program through an approved employer to work the same number of hours and days during the school year as would be permitted during school vacations or holidays (“non-school week hours”). This bill takes effect July 1, 2026. We will be updating our Legal Guide, Child Labor Laws.
ESHB 1644 (safety and health of working minors): Establishes minimum penalties for violations of restrictions governing the employment of minors in non-agricultural and agricultural industries. Requires L&I to revoke an employer’s minor work permit if the employer committed a serious, willful, or ongoing safety or health violation or child labor violation that caused death or serious physical harm to a minor or that required an order of immediate restraint. The new law also requires L&I to conduct a safety and health consultation at a worksite before granting a student-learner variance allowing a minor to perform work typically prohibited based on the minor’s age. This bill takes effect July 1, 2026. We will be updating our Legal Guide, Child Labor Laws accordingly.
ESHB 1141 (collective bargaining for agricultural cannabis workers): Creates collective bargaining procedures for certain agricultural workers involved with cannabis production and processing. The law also authorizes the Public Employment Relations Commission to administer and enforce these procedures. This bill takes effect July 27, 2025.
SSHB 1524 (workplace standards for certain isolated employees): Requires L&I to enforce certain safety requirements for hotel, motel, retail, security guard, or property services employers of isolated employees (including janitors, security guards, hotel or motel housekeepers, or room service attendants who spend 50% of their work time without a coworker present). The law also makes the failure to provide a panic button and training to an isolated employee an unfair practice under the Washington Law Against Discrimination. This bill takes effect January 1, 2026.
SHB 1821 (definition of interested party for prevailing wage laws): Requires an employer’s certified payroll records to be provided to an “interested party” for purposes of enforcing prevailing wage requirements. “Interested party” is expanded to include joint labor-management cooperation committees and Taft-Harley trusts. The requirement to provide certified payroll records to an interested party takes effect July 27, 2025, while the expansion of the definition of interested party takes effect on January 1, 2026.
SSB 5104 (protection from coercion based on immigration status): Imposes a civil penalty and requires L&I to investigate an employer that coerces an employee based on an employee’s or an employee’s family member’s immigration status in furtherance of the employer committing a violation of wage payment, condition of labor, or agricultural labor requirements. This bill takes effect July 1, 2025.
Tips: We will be hosting a webinar this summer to help employers understand the numerous bills that came out of the Washington legislature this session. Watch our newsletter for event details coming soon. In the meantime members can contact their Vigilant Law Group employment attorney with any questions about how these newly signed bills may affect your workplace.