Wash. L&I Cracks Down on Unregistered Residential Wood Framers

Inspectors from the Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) will be out in force in Pierce, Jefferson, Kitsap and Clallam counties this month, making sure residential wood framers are working safely and are registered and paying their fair share of premiums to the state’s workers’ compensation fund.

A similar sweep held in the same area last fall turned up eight unregistered contractors and over 70 workplace safety and health violations. L&I inspectors also found nine contractors who did not have L&I accounts and more than 40 contractors who were identified as possibly underpaying their workers’ compensation accounts. They also found 15 contractors who were delinquent in their payments to L&I.

This is part of a statewide effort to reduce injuries and ensure that framers are meeting their statutory obligation to the program that insures workers against job-related injuries and illnesses. Framers have been targeted because their injury rate and premiums are considerably higher than most other trades in the construction industry.

Since L&I launched its framing initiative last summer, the agency has nearly tripled the number of safety inspections and contacts it has made with contractors. The goal is to hold rates down by reducing injuries and spreading the cost of workers’ compensation insurance evenly throughout the industry.