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Cheers to Peers

Welcome back to our Cheers to Peers column – a space to recognize some of the excellent work being done in our member districts. Today we are saying “cheers” to Issaquah School District’s Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Group.

This group has worked for years to build a high-functioning team consisting of staff, administrators and unions with consistent roles and responsibilities.

In terms of IAQ, they have incorporated all best practices, including school-board-approved policies and procedures. And they can address IAQ concerns in-house. Even more impressive is the guidance poster they have developed which will be adopted by the Department of Health.

Our hats off to Issaquah for tackling such a big project with so much success!

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Return-to-Work Corner

An RTW Kudo Award goes to Mukilteo School District. They created three light duty positions that support the entire district!

• Touch Point Cleaning – allowing flexibility, duties can be as broad or as detailed as the worker’s restrictions require.
• Print Shop Helper – supporting the in-house publications department with a variety of stationary work.
• Science Kit Position – creating counting and other science-oriented packets to support K-8 science and math curriculum.

These positions allow 5 – 10 people to return to work in a light duty capacity and the district can meet injured workers where they are in their recovery.

This is good for the district and great motivation for the injured worker because it acknowledges their importance and value to the district.

Our highest incidence of on-the-job injuries occur due to trips, slips, and falls, and the end of the school year is a peak period for these types of injuries due to the increase in cleanup and furniture relocation tasks.

Careful thought and planning are needed to develop safe and efficient ways to perform these activities.

Garbage Disposal
Overloading of garbage cans during the end-of-year cleanup presents a major risk of strain and sprain injury for staff moving the bins. Back and shoulder injuries are common due to pushing, pulling, and emptying of heavy wheeled bins.

Here are some strategies to minimize the risk of injury to custodial staff:

• Spread heavy loads equally between bins.
• Consider other waste disposal strategies such as taking garbage directly to industrial bins in manageable loads.

Classroom teachers can play a role in keeping custodians safe during end-of-year cleanup by remembering a few simple tips:

• Undertake a progressive cleanup over the last few weeks of school rather than leaving it to the final days of the school year.
• Do not overfill waste paper bins—remember small baskets are expected to be light when lifted. Placing heavy books or items in these bins increases the risk of injury for the person emptying the bin.
• Place waste paper bins on chairs or desks at the end of each day—this saves the custodian from repetitive bending.

Relocation of Furniture and Equipment
At the end of the school year teachers are frequently asked to ‘relocate’ classroom furniture. Teachers are not furniture movers and often do not have appropriate equipment, assistance, time, or training to complete these tasks safely.

Any tasks involving heavy or awkward loads should only be carried out after thoughtful planning and assessment of risks.  The risk of injury can be minimized by:

• Eliminating movement of furniture and equipment when possible.
• Leaving full filing cabinets where they are – only move files in small bundles.
• Moving personal items with the assistance of others. Think about moving only personal items rather than desks and filing cabinets.
• Using professionals to move heavy items.  This is efficient and inexpensive when compared to the human and financial costs of an injury to a staff member.
• Planning moving activities like any other major project. The people involved such as the school officer and custodian, need to be consulted.

It is important to ensure an adequate number of staff are available to assist on moving days.  Necessary moving equipment must be available and staff must be trained on how to use it.

Simple Safety Tips
Staff should be reminded that their own safety is important, especially toward the end of the school year when there is an even greater temptation to rush to achieve deadlines.

• Work with colleagues and administrators whenever possible to manage major tasks such as relocation of classrooms.
• Plan the task.  Take five minutes to think about the best and safest way to do the job:  organize assistance, get the right equipment, and clear pathways.
• Ask for help; there is a big difference between what you can lift and what you can safely lift.
• Use the right equipment for the job.  This equipment must be easily accessible and in good working order. For example: use a small step ladder to reach items, do not stand on a chair or desk.
• Spread physical tasks over a number of days and allow your body to “warm up” in the morning before starting any heavy lifting tasks.
• Wear appropriate clothing and footwear for the job: bring spare “work” clothes and suitable footwear for moving or “cleanup” days.
• Don’t rush; spending the school holidays recovering from an injury will not be worth the five minutes you might save.

Follow these tips to ensure a safe end to your year!

Last month I had the opportunity to meet with many of our school district partners at PSWCT’s Annual Trustee Meeting to discuss how to best position our members to achieve sustainably excellent workers’ compensation program performance. As an organization that focuses on risk reduction, we are constantly working to reduce our member districts’ exposure to costly workers’ compensation claims, and the impact that exposure has on your budgets and staff stability.

When we look at program performance, we look at our trends in terms of exposure, frequency, and severity. Our exposure is measured by worker hours, meaning that as your staff increases, so does your exposure to risk. Total worker hours have steadily increased over the past six fiscal years by 15%, and claim counts have followed more dramatically by 21%.

To help reduce your exposure, we look at causation trends. Recent data tells us that the highest incidence of claims occurs with injuries due to falls, slips, and trips, followed by injuries caused by strains. With this information in hand, we will be working to provide school district-specific advice on how to reduce your risk for these types of injuries.

In addition to providing good opportunities for meaningful conversations between our claims staff and their district counterparts, our Annual Meeting is also an opportunity for our Trustees to gather and make decisions that impact the direction of our collective work. At this year’s meeting, our Trustees voted to approve the Executive Advisory Board’s recommendation to increase base rates by 2%. These small, gradual increases in rates help to build a buffer in our fund balance against potential catastrophic claims or economic downturns.

Our Trustees also voted on expiring and vacant positions on our Executive Advisory Board. We are excited to welcome new Board member Tyrell Bergstrom of Mercer Island School District and returning Board member Joanne Dickinson of Monroe School District, as well as continuing Board members Kathy Kemp of Bethel School District and Tammy Bigelow of Franklin Pierce School District.

As an additional resource for members at our Annual Trustee meeting, we were pleased to offer our first panel discussion on the topic of minimizing exposure, featuring some of our valued external business partners, such as Ed Davis of Arthur Gallagher & Co., Kevin Wick of PwC, and Kelly Woolhouse of Absentia Solutions. The theme of this panel was, “Small Actions for Big Impact: Minimize Your Exposure.” In addition to our external partners, this panel also featured the expertise of two new PSWCT staff members – Bradley Jones, Claims Attorney, and Aliza Hauser, our Return-to-Work Manager. School district staff in attendance were invited to submit questions to our panel, so that our experts could provide guidance that directly addressed our members’ needs.

Questions raised by our members addressed topics such as progressive discipline for employees who do not follow safety procedures on a repeated basis, and the benefits of reporting incidents early. Panelists also focused in on small actions that can have a big impact. Aliza Hauser, our Return-to-Work Manager, highlighted how something as seemingly insignificant as a phone call to an injured worker to check in can have a big impact on that worker’s perception of their importance to the district, and have long-term impacts on claim outcomes. It is easy to become focused on policies and paperwork and lose sight of the importance of personal connections that help our employees feel connected to their work.

I encourage all our members to think about what small steps you can take towards risk reduction in your respective school districts, including participation in our Return-to-Work Incentive Program, where school districts can be reimbursed anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 for bringing injured workers back to work on transitional duty.  I hope that you reach out to our experienced staff for support in your efforts towards risk reduction.

We typically receive workers’ compensation claims via an injured worker completing our online SIF-2 form.

However, sometimes we are first notified of a workers’ compensation claim when we receive a document from the injured worker’s medical provider called the Provider’s Initial Report (PIR).

We are required to open a claim using the information on this form within 3 business days of receiving a PIR, even if the injured worker has not yet completed the SIF-2 online. While it is our practice to attempt to get in touch with the worker to have them file a claim, sometimes they are not responsive, even after we have made multiple attempts to contact them by phone.

The PIR form does not contain all the information we need to open a claim and does not provide the worker with a claim number for billing purposes. This is an area where we need help from our school district counterparts to enable the worker to file a claim in a timely manner.

If the worker has not filed a claim after 3 business days, we will need to file a dummy claim. This is a claim completed with basic information by one of our claims specialists to get the claim set up in our system. To file a dummy claim we require the worker’s email address, job title, and job location. We may also need other information from you if the PIR is missing information such as the worker’s Social Security Number, date of birth, or mailing address.

It is important that you respond to requests for this type of information within 24 hours, so that we can ensure your injured workers’ claims are filed within the required timeframe. Not doing so can result in penalties being assessed by LNI.

We appreciate your assistance. Please reach out to us if you have any questions by emailing pswct@psesd.org or calling (425) 917-7638.

As you may have heard, there are changes coming to Reasonable Assurance.  The U.S. Department of Labor published federal guidance in December 2016 that changed unemployment compensation eligibility for both certificated and classified school employees.

To conform to the new federal requirements, the Washington State Employment Security Department requested that the State Legislature update several sections of the RCWs governing unemployment benefits (RCW 50.44).  The legislation was signed by the governor and went into effect on October 1, 2018.

The key changes impacting school districts are a three-part test to determine whether school employees are eligible for unemployment compensation during school breaks:

• Are there prerequisites to employment?
• Does the employee have a contract?
• Does the employee have reasonable assurance?

The tests are complex.  The overall goal, though, remains one of determining whether it is likely the school will employ the person after the break and, if so, whether the work is similar to the work the person performed before the break.  If the answer is “no” to any of the tests or if the requirement is not met, the next requirement must be addressed.  Following is an explanation of the tests:

Test One Requirements

1. Offer is made by somebody with actual authority.
   1. “There is a written, verbal, or implied offer of employment made by an individual with actual authority to offer employment.” WAC 192-210-015(2)(a).
      1. In many cases, this is a letter that should be signed by the Superintendent. If he/she is not the one who makes the hiring decisions, the person who does should be the one to sign. This may mean that a signature from somebody in the Human Resources Department may not suffice. As always, the recommendation of the Unemployment Pool is that the reasonable assurance be communicated in writing.
2. Both the old (current term) job and new (next year term) job are in the same capacity. In order to be considered in the same capacity, it must be:
   1. Professional job to professional job
   2. Non-professional job to non-professional job
   3. Educational institution to educational institution
   4. Educational Service District to Educational Service District
3. The employer must pay at least 90% of the wages it paid in the previous academic term. According to WASBO, the “employer cannot reduce employee’s wages by more than 10%.”
   1. This is the tricky part – the new Employment Security rules do not define what the timeframe is for that 10% – if we’re talking about weekly, monthly, or over the course of the academic year. For best practices, the Unemployment Pool suggests that the districts’ reasonable assurance letters contain language that the wages will be “at least 90%” of the current term, so long as the district has a “highly probable” belief that this will be true.

Test Two Requirement

1. Does the employee have a contract?

Test Three Requirement

1. Does the employee have reasonable assurance?

If the final answer is “no” to these tests/requirements, the employee can use the wages from educational employment to establish unemployment eligibility.  Remember, it is the employer’s burden to show requirements are met.

Multiple Employers
There is a change to multiple employer situations.  If employees provide services for more than one educational employer, it must be determined if they have contracts with or reasonable assurance from each of these employers.  If they do not have a contract or reasonable assurance, employees can use wages from the educational employer for which they have no contract or reasonable assurance to establish unemployment eligibility.  If they do have a contract or reasonable assurance, the employees cannot use their wages from any educational employment to establish unemployment eligibility.

Going Forward – Updating Letters
This is a new development and the Employment Security Department has not provided templates or examples of letters that will suffice. With this in mind, the below language represents Puget Sound Unemployment Pool’s (Pool) best efforts at advising you on how to proceed with your new reasonable assurance letters. Given the nature of this, we cannot predict how Employment Security will interpret each and every instance of this, and we make no guarantees. As with all new developments in law, this will require some growing pains and adjustments.

To wit, potential issues that may arise are instances where the school district is unable to state that there is a high probability that the employment pattern/hours will result in at least 90% pay for the coming term relative to the ending term. This is particularly at issue for districts making staffing changes or cuts.

Another area that we do not yet have guidance on is any interplay with other rules for eligibility for unemployment benefits. For example, a worker who receives a 25% reduction in pay is eligible for unemployment benefits. If a district gives reasonable insurance in May 2019 that wages will be at least 90%, but come autumn they are actually 83%, will that allow a worker to make a claim for unemployment benefits for only a 17% reduction under a reasonable assurance theory? We do not believe so, but we also have no definitive statement from the Employment Security Department.

With the above in mind, the Pool is suggesting the below language be added to your reasonable assurance letters. Please consider this in conjunction with guidance from your own district when creating your reasonable assurance letters for the 2019-2020 school year and beyond.

We are pleased to notify you of reasonable assurance of continued employment with ____________ for the 2019-2020 school year. It is highly probable that this employment will be in the same capacity as your current employment as a ___________ with the same rate of pay and the same pattern of employment, including wages equaling at least 90%.

Questions
If you have questions about reasonable assurance, please contact the Puget Sound Unemployment Pool at (425) 917-7667.

Resources
We have compiled some resources if you are interested in more detailed information.

• U.S. Department of Labor: Interpretation of “Contract” and “Reasonable Assurance” Section 3304(a)(6)(A) of the Federal Unemployment Tax Act
• Washington State Employment Security Department: Reasonable Assurance

We are pleased to announce a new learning opportunity – virtual roundtables, a place to discuss and explore specific topics related to workers’ compensation and unemployment benefit issues.

Roundtables are a wonderful forum for professional development and provide a place for idea and experience sharing.  And since we are offering a virtual option, you can participate from the comfort of your own office.

Our plan is to conduct guided discussions on topics of interest to our members on a quarterly basis.  We have identified a few topics and want to hear what is important to you.  Here is what you can look forward to: return-to-work incentive, Origami reporting, fraud investigation, school district safety culture, blood-borne pathogens, records retention, and more.

Members will be invited to participate in the discussions via Zoom and subject matter experts will lead the discussions.  We hope you will join us.

Our first Virtual Roundtable is scheduled for June 25, 2019 from 11:00 – noon. We’ll be discussing significant L&I changes effective July 1, 2019.  Learn more here.

Contact Dee Thierry with any questions at dthierry@psesd.org.

PSWCT has partnered with SafeSchools to bring you a new library in your SafeSchools Training site, which will be available at the end of June.

These courses, sponsored and provided to your district by PSWCT, were specifically curated to deliver your staff the best options for safety training.

The courses can now be found by going to the Admin Area > Courses Tab > PSWCT Course Library. You’ll follow the same steps to assign these courses in your Training Plan as you do any other course in the SafeSchools Training Library.

If you have any questions, please contact PSWCT:

•       Steve Lyons, Loss Control Consultant, slyons@psesd.org
•       Matt Tardif, Loss Control Consultant, mtardif@psesd.org
•       Elizabeth Jakab, Industrial Hygienist, ejakab@psesd.org

We look forward to sharing this exciting learning opportunity with you as you prepare for the upcoming school year!

Summer is on its way. While sunshine and warm temperatures are a welcome sight after a gloomy winter, it is important to remember that working outdoors in hot weather is a health hazard.

Beginning May 1 and continuing through September 30, Washington State requires that all employers with employees exposed to outdoor temperatures above applicable levels implement a heat stress program.

An Outdoor Heat Exposure Prevention Plan should be part of your district’s Accident Prevention Plan.

Requirements
The general requirements for employers are to:

• Provide annual training to employees and supervisors on symptoms of outdoor heat exposure and policies in place to prevent heat-related illness;
• Increase the volume of water available to employees on days when temperatures require preventive measures; and
• Have the ability to appropriately respond to any employee with symptoms of heat-related illness.

Workers experiencing heat-related illnesses such as heat exhaustion or heat stroke can exhibit a wide variety of symptoms including: dizziness, headaches, vomiting, or fainting.

The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries has an educational card available that fully describes the specific symptoms of heat-related illness, and steps employees can take to prevent it. In addition to the tips listed in our heat safety infographic (accessible version), employees should also take care to limit caffeine intake, and be aware of any side effects of medication they are taking that could increase the risk of heat-related illness.

OSHA: Water. Rest. Shade.
LNI: Outdoor Heat Exposure

 

Puget Sound Workers’ Compensation Trust (PSWCT) is committed to the safety and well-being of our members and encourages a culture of safety within each district.

Hearing conservation, an important best practice, is designed to prevent the occurrence or reduce the progression of noise-induced hearing loss.

PSWCT has developed a Hearing Conservation Program for specific employee work groups that may experience risk due to prolonged noise exposure. PSWCT has partnered with Listen Audiology Services to bring on-site audiogram services to our Trust members.

To assist our districts and their employees in preparing for on-site audiograms, we have prepared the following new tip sheets:

• Hearing Conservation Testing: How to Prepare Your District
• What Employees Need to Know about Hearing Conservation (Audiometric) Testing

Questions?
Contact Matt Tardif at mtardif@psesd.org or Steve Lyons at slyons@psesd.org.

In February we distributed our second in a series of three surveys about our services, this one focusing on Claims Management services.  A big thanks to all who responded.

This valuable information will serve as a baseline as we continue to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of our services.  Our mission is to provide exemplary claims and risk management services to our members.  We will use your responses to guide our work.

The results of this inaugural survey were good overall.  It appears we are meeting your needs in the areas of claims handling and communication, staff interactions, and your overall experience.

We appreciate your specific feedback and will work to make improvements where needed.  Please note that a risk management-specific survey will be distributed in May where you will be able to share additional comments.

Thank you again for your cooperation.  You are important to us as a member and as an integral part of managing and preventing claims. We value your contributions to keeping staff safe and healthy, and we will use your feedback to guide us in expanding what is working and fixing what is not.