Our advocacy paid off: Safer staffing is coming to Washington hospitals!

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Our bill to address safe staffing in hospitals, ESSB 5236, was passed by the House earlier this month — the last step in a lengthy legislative process that we, in coalition with SEIU Healthcare 1199NW, UFCW 3000, and the Washington State Nurses Association, helped move forward with our actions, stories, and willingness to use our collective voice to ensure safer care in our hospitals. When we fight, we win!

The bill landed on Gov. Inslee’s desk to be signed into law on April 20, 2023. As of today, our bill is law.

What’s next?

We’ll celebrate our success at coalition victory parties around the state on May 11 from 6-8 p.m. RSVP to a Victory Celebration Here >>

  • Seattle: Seattle Labor Temple, 5030 1st Ave. S

  • Spokane: UFCW 3000 Office, 2805 N. Market St.

  • Tri-Cities: SEIU 1199NW Office, 7525 W. Deschutes Pl Ste 2 Kennewick, WA 99336

  • Tacoma: Shiloh Baptist Church, 1211 S I St.

  • Mt. Vernon: UFCW 3000 Office, 1510 N 18th St.

  • Everett: Snohomish County Labor Temple, 2810 Lombard Ave.

  • Olympia: Washington State Labor Council, 906 Columbia St. SW (2nd floor)

We’ll distribute an implementation timeline, provide resources, and share information to help us enforce the new staffing law and ensure accountability.

“I’m very glad to see the nursing staff representatives on our staffing committees expanded to include CNAs and LPNs alongside RNs. I know ensuring strict enforcement of a new staffing law is going to take some work, but I’m excited to get started learning how we can use it to keep our patients safer, our hospitals accountable, and our jobs more sustainable.”
— Patricia Brown, LPN, Tacoma General, member of UFCW 3000

The new safe staffing law will:

  • Strengthen accountability to hospital staffing plans set by staffing committees.

  • Eliminate CEO veto power over those plans.

  • Expand staffing committees to include LPNs, CNAs, and other direct patient care staff in addition to RNs.

  • Reduce hospitals’ ability to pack staffing committees with people who impede plans.

  • Create uniform reporting forms, which will mean that patients and healthcare workers will easily understand how many staff should be present.

  • Require hospitals to report noncompliance to the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Labor & Industries (L&I).

  • Allow DOH to issue corrective action plans that could require minimum staffing standards and fines.

  • Expand meal and rest break laws to include all frontline staff.

  • Close loopholes to make mandatory overtime laws fully enforceable.

  • Allow L&I to issue escalating penalties for missed breaks.

  • Funds the Washington State Institute for Public Policy to conduct a study of existing staffing plans.