The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Washington State Department of Health (State agency), jointly with the Department of Labor and Industries · Washington
- Level
- Sector regulator
- Authority
- RCW 70.114A.065 (temporary worker housing rules) (recited); RCW 43.70.335 (recited); RCW 34.05.350 (emergency rules) (recited); Proclamation 20-25 (Ex. WA-016) (recited)
- Issued
- 2020-05-13 May 13, 2020
- Effective
- 2020-05-18
- End
- 120 days (RCW 34.05.350(2)), about Sept. 15, 2020; readopted Sept. 10, 2020 (Ex. 058) (read as 2020-09-15)
- In force
- May 18, 2020 to Sept. 15, 2020
- Quarters
- 2020 Q22020 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Capacity limitFace-covering requirementWorkplace rulesQuarantine and isolation
- Addressees
- operators of licensed temporary worker housing (agricultural employers and housing operators)
- employers housing H-2A and domestic seasonal farmworkers
- Functions reached
- LB labor housing (occupancy reduced: top bunks barred, distancing in all facilities, isolation space)
- FP farm production (housing capacity governs the harvest workforce)
- WF workforce (cohorts of fifteen for housing, work and transport)
- TR transportation (cohort rule)
- OP management plan within ten days
- Collection
- State agriculture, parks and wildlife agencies AGY-ST-AGRICULTURE-PARKS-WILDLIFE
Operative words
The emergency rule requires operators: (1) Educate occupants in a language or languages understood by the occupants on COVID-19; (2) provide occupants cloth face coverings; (3) ensure physical distancing of occupants when at housing sites, which includes all cooking, eating, bathing, washing, recreational, and sleeping facilities; (4) ensure frequent cleaning and disinfecting of surfaces; (5) identify and isolate occupants with suspect and confirmed positive cases; and (6) submit to DOH a revised temporary worker housing management plan that demonstrates how the operator will comply with the emergency rule requirements.... A group shelter is where a cohort of up to fifteen occupants stay together and separated from others for housing, work, and transportation.... The physical distancing requirements of the emergency rule otherwise prohibit the use of the top bunk of bunk beds.
Enforcement
RCW 70.114A (licence conditions; DOH enforcement against licensed operators); RCW 43.06.220(5) as to Proclamation 20-25
Notes
Washington's tree-fruit, berry and hop industries house tens of thousands of seasonal workers in licensed TWH; the rule cut lawful occupancy and fixed work cohorts for the 2020 season.
Retrieval noteThe WA State file (WA-109 notes) records these rules as 'not separately retrieved'; they are now Exs. 056-065. Proclamation 20-57 (May 28, 2020; Ex. WA-033) separately made agricultural-worker protections mandatory.