1558

PSERS MEMBERSHIP (HB 1558)

Our priority bill to expand membership in the Public Safety Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS), HB 1558. It would add institutions workers in high-risk jobs to PSERS so they could retire earlier at 60 in recognition of the physical toll their dangerous jobs take on them

3/2/18   Passes Senate 34-14. On its way to the Governor.

2/26/18   HB 1558 is now in Senate Rules and must pass a vote of the Senate by Mar 3.

2/12/18 BULLETIN: The state House late Monday morning (Feb. 12) passed our priority bill (SHB 1558) to expand the Public Safety Employees Retirement System (PSERS) to institutions workers in high-risk jobs. The vote was 89-9. SHB 1558 now goes to the Senate. The bill would give state institutions workers doing high-risk jobs the same recognition on retirement as other public workers in dangerous jobs.

2/7/18   SHB 1558 expanding PSERS to include institutions workers is now in the House Rules Committee.

PSERS bill passes House Appropriations

2/6/18   Our priority bill SHB 1558, expanding PSERS to include institutions workers passed the House Appropriations Committee. It now goes to the House Rules Committee.

PSERS bill before House Appropriations

1/17/18  AFSCME Council 28 (WFSE) President Sue Henricksen and Western State Hospital Local 793 member Rick Hertzog today (Jan. 17) urged the House Appropriations Committee to move the bill to add high-risk state institutions workers into the Public Safety Employees Retirement System (PSERS). HB 1558 would recognize those dangerous jobs by allowing workers to retire at age 60. “Members who work in those jobs put their lives on the line every time they enter their work units,” Henricksen said. She told the House budget writers that DSHS has reported more than 10,000 worker injuries since 2012, with 1,806 in 2017. The committee has scheduled a vote on HB 1558 for tomorrow (Jan. 18).

Institutional Workers deserve inclusion in PSERS

1/5/18  House Bill 1558 expands the Public Service Employees Retirement System (PSERS). The measure would allow earlier retirement for direct care workers at DSHS and Veterans Affairs institutions. The earlier retirement would recognize these workers’ high rate of injury and assault. Those in high-risk institutions occupations would be allowed to retire at age 60.

“This is an opportunity for our state to remedy what really is an inequity for folks who have worked around folks who are dangerous and who have suffered greater exposure to injury,” the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Christine Kilduff of the 28th Dist., testified last year.

Like a lot of good humanitarian bills, our PSERS bill passed the House in 2017 but was ignored by the old majority controlling the state Senate.

With the new working-family-friendly majority in the state Senate and continued support from the House, our members in state Institutions are wasting no time to put both the PSERS bill and Capital Construction Budget on the fast track.

The PSERS bill hasn’t been scheduled for any action yet, so the timing of the Institutions members’ action is very timely.

Starting today, Federation Institutions members across the state are filling out “Pain Assessment Tools” detailing the harm they’ve experienced from on-the-job assaults and injuries – in line with the point made by Rep. Kilduff.

“Please respect my sacrifice by passing the Capital Budget and cover my work in the Public Safety Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS),” the members will say in their separate messages to their two House members and state senator.

Our Institutional workers are sharing their pain:

1/2/18 UPDATE

Would include institutions workers in the Public Safety Employees Retirement System. PSERS is appropriate for those state workers who put themselves at risk of physical harm every day. 
HB 1558 passed the House 93-5 in 2017.