Washington Avoids Further Review of Tweak to Workers' Comp Law

摘要

The Ninth Circuit won't rehear a federal challenge to a Washington law that provides workers' compensation to employees who develop certain health conditions and cancers tied to cleaning up a decommissioned federal nuclear production site. The Department of Energy has overseen cleanup at the Hanford Site, which produced weapons-grade plutonium for use in the U.S. nuclear program during World War Ⅱ and the Cold War, since 1989. The site generated radioactive and chemically hazardous waste, and the DOE hired private contractors and subcontractors to perform the cleanup work. In 2018, Washington amended its workers' compensation scheme and enacted a rule that applies only to Hanford workers. The rule establishes a presumption that certain cancers are occupational diseases and allows the site workers to pursue state workers' compensation claims. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for Washington in August. The federal government had argued that the state violated the doctrine of intergovernmental immunity by impermissibly regulating and discriminating against government workers.