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ESD seeks to streamline reports and clarify WARN Act confidentiality; committee members urge transparency
Summary
ESD proposed shifting several legislative reports into committee reports and made two WARN Act changes (exclude tribes from employer definition and allow confidentiality of employee names/addresses); advisory members voiced transparency and stakeholder outreach concerns.
The Employment Security Department told its advisory committee that it is pursuing agency-request bills to streamline reporting and clarify aspects of the Washington WARN Act.
Government relations director Josh Dye said the department proposes changing three legislative reports (confidentiality of ESD data; employment services for people with disabilities; impacts of work-search flexibilities) from full legislative reports to committee report-outs to reduce administrative burden while preserving content. He described that change as an efficiency measure that would not eliminate information currently provided to lawmakers.
Dye also outlined two proposed changes to the state WARN Act from last year: to align Washington's employer definition with the federal statute by excluding tribes from the employer definition, and to make clear the agency can hold employee names and addresses confidential while still publishing WARN notices. "We still have full intention of publishing the WARN Act," Dye said, "we just want to be able to protect the names and addresses of the individuals that are listed there."
Committee response: Members raised transparency concerns. James Crandall and others asked whether moving reports to committee oversight reduces public visibility and requested clear stakeholder outreach; committee members recommended early engagement with Citizens for Open Government, allied newspapers and other stakeholders on any statutory exemptions.
Status: Dye said work with the governor's office is ongoing and that the paid-family-and-medical-leave reports will remain legislative reports but be consolidated into a single report after stakeholder feedback.
