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All other Washington tracks have an L&I premium of $15.00 regardless
of the number or percent of horses owned.
Receipts for payment of license and labor and industries
premiums sent to the WHRC office through the mail
are returned by mail to the address of record. You
must come to a track that is operating in order to
be photographed and receive your WHRC identification
card.
WASHINGTON
STATE WORKERS’ COMPENSATION COVERAGE INFORMATION
Out-of-State Workers Compensation Coverage: Trainers
Licensed trainers who leave Washington to race in
another state and take WHRC licensed assistant trainer(s),
exercise rider(s), pony rider(s), and/or groom(s)
must notify the WHRC and the Washington Horsemen’s
Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA) prior
to going out of state and provide the name(s) of the
employee(s) you are taking. In addition, your ‘business’
needs to be based in Washington and the employees
taken to another state must be licensed by the WHRC
and must have been hired in Washington. If you hire
an employee while outside Washington, you may be required
to obtain workers’ compensation coverage in
the state you are working in for all employees you
hire in another state.
Additionally, when training out-of-state, your employees
will only be covered under the Horseracing Industry
Account if your employees work exclusively for you
and are only performing the duties for which they
possess a valid WHRC license. For example, an exercise
rider who also gallops for another trainer (whether
the other trainer is a WHRC licensed trainer or not)
will be considered an employee of the state where
work is performed and will not be covered by L&I
should an on-the-job injury occur. Similarly, any
employee who takes a second job of any sort while
working for a WHRC licensed trainer out-of-state will
be denied coverage under the Washington Horseracing
Industry Account.
Special Note:
Trainers are advised to check with each state in which
they work for specific requirements.
Time/Payroll Cards
In Washington, licensed trainers are considered the
employer in the horse racing industry. Trainers are
responsible, and required by L&I, to keep accurate
records of the monies paid to their employees (WAC
296-17-35201). Trainers who fail to keep such records
may be audited by L&I and may be subject to fines
and penalties. If an injury should occur to an employee
working for a trainer, these wage records will be
submitted to the department for the determination
of time-loss payments.
Special Note:
Accurate time-loss payments made to injured workers
will help control claim costs. Claim costs are used
to determine the trainer’s annual workers’
compensation premiums paid at the time of licensing
with the WHRC.
Assistant
Trainers, Exercise Riders, Pony Riders and Grooms
Assistant trainers, exercise riders, pony riders
and grooms who are licensed by the WHRC must also
make sure the trainer they are working for is licensed
by the WHRC and that the proper L&I premiums have
been paid for your coverage. If you are working for
(or getting paid by) anyone other than a WHRC licensed
trainer and an injury occurs, you will not be covered
under the Horseracing Industry Account. For example,
if at the time an injury occurs, it is the owner and
not the trainer who is paying a WHRC licensed person
to exercise or break horses, the claim will be denied
under the Horseracing Industry Account, even though
the horses involved are listed on the stable application
and may eventually be under the care of a licensed
trainer. You can check with the WHRC to verify the
trainer’s license status.
Assistant trainers, exercise riders, pony riders
and grooms are also required and responsible for keeping
records of the wages paid to you from the trainer(s)
who employ you. This information will be submitted
to L&I for calculation of time-loss benefits to
be paid to you should an injury occur.
Out-of-State
Workers Compensation Coverage: Pony Riders,
Exercise Riders, Assistant Trainers, and Grooms
If you are hired by a Washington trainer, licensed
by the WHRC and go out of state with that trainer,
you must work only for that trainer to be covered
under Washington State workers’ compensation
should an on-the-job injury occur in another state.
Pony Riders
- Subcontracting
It has come to the attention of L&I that there
are pony riders who are contracting-out work to other
pony riders (i.e. “doubles”). If you are
a pony rider who contracts work out to another pony
rider, (i.e., you bill trainers for horses you personally
did not pony and/or you pay other pony riders to do
work that you billed a trainer) you are advised that
you may be considered a subcontractor. Only licensed
pony riders who have directly obtained work from licensed
trainers are covered under the Horseracing Industry
Account. Any pony rider who is injured while performing
services for someone other than a licensed trainer
will not have his/her claim covered under the Horseracing
Industry Account.
Special Note:
If you are an owner who employs exercise rider(s),
pony rider(s), groom(s), assistant trainer(s) or other
persons at a farm or the racetrack, you must provide
your own worker’s compensation coverage for
these employees. Listing the horses under a trainer’s
name does not constitute the trainer being the employer
under the Horseracing Industry Account. If an injury
occurs, a non-trainer who is paying the WHRC licensed
employee is responsible for the injury either by another
L&I account or personally.
Short duration industrial insurance coverage for
trainers shipping in for short periods of time.
Trainers who ship in to Emerald Downs (Class A or
B race meets) may purchase short duration industrial
insurance coverage for seven consecutive calendar
days. The trainer must pay twenty percent of the trainer
base premium, twenty percent for each groom slot obtained,
twenty percent for each assistant trainer hired, and
twenty percent of each exercise rider (all rounded
to the next whole dollar). A trainer may only purchase
Class A or B race meet short duration coverage for
three seven-day periods per calendar year.
Trainers who ship in to Class C (non-profit) race
meets (Sun Downs, Walla Walla, Waitsburg, Dayton)
may purchase short duration industrial insurance coverage
for seven consecutive calendar days. The trainer must
pay twenty percent of the trainer base premium, twenty
percent of each groom slot obtained, twenty percent
for each assistant trainer hired, and twenty percent
of each exercise rider (all rounded to the next whole
dollar). A trainer may only purchase Class C race
meet short duration coverage for three seven-day periods
per calendar year. Class C race meet short duration
industrial insurance coverage is not transferable
to a Class A or B race meet.
Before short duration coverage will be allowed, a
trainer must obtain a license and pay all applicable
license and fingerprint fees. The trainer will also
be required to ensure that each groom, assistant trainer,
pony rider, and exercise rider hired by the trainer
has a proper license.
If not already licensed, grooms, assistant trainers,
pony riders and exercise riders hired by a trainer
are required to pay their full annual license and
fingerprint fees.
Additional key points for owners and trainers to
understand:
- Owners are required to pay industrial insurance
premiums at the time of licensing. However, employees
of the owner are not covered under the horse industry
industrial insurance program. Only the employees of
the trainer are covered. If the owner has employees,
their workers compensation coverage must be through
the owner’s individual L&I account. If an
owner does not have an L&I account and the employee
is injured the owner may be fined in addition to being
responsible for the injury claims. L&I will reject
any claim by an employee of an owner under the horse
industry industrial insurance program.
- The trainer must possess a valid WHRC license
to have employees (assistant trainers, exercise riders,
pony riders and grooms) covered by the horse industry
industrial insurance program.
- Assistant trainers, exercise riders, pony
riders and grooms must possess a valid WHRC license
for each duty they perform to be covered by the horse
industry industrial insurance program.
- If the trainer or the employee (assistant
trainers, exercise riders, pony riders, grooms) is
not licensed by the WHRC, L&I will reject the
workers compensation claim under the horse industry
industrial insurance program.
- If an unlicensed trainer does not have an
individual industrial insurance account and an employee
is injured the trainer may be fined by L&I, in
addition to being responsible for the injury claims.
- No Washington licensed trainer stabled out
of Washington may cover an exercise rider under Washington
industrial insurance at the out-of-state facility
if the exercise rider works for any other trainer.
- Under the L&I premium installment agreement,
failure of trainers to make their L&I premium
payments by the scheduled date will result in immediate
suspension and fine without a ruling conference. The
trainer will not be reinstated until the premium and
fine is paid.
- Any trainer who will be either exercising
or riding a pony horse, whether it is their own horse
or not, are required to obtain the proper license
to ensure they are qualified to perform those duties.
- Within 48 hours trainers must notify the
WHRC office, either in person or by phone, any change
of in employees (grooms, assistant trainers). Failure
to report these changes may result in a penalty.
- Any trainer found to have more employees
working than she/he has groom slots will be required
to pay the additional L&I premium for the additional
employees and assessed a fine equivalent to 50% of
that premium.
- The Washington Department of Labor and Industries
has reciprocity agreements with eight states, (Idaho,
Oregon, Nevada, North Dakota, Montana, South Dakota,
Utah, Wyoming). Out of state trainers who have industrial
insurance with these states are not required to buy
L&I in Washington as long as all employees are
hired in the jurisdiction of coverage. No employees
may be hired in Washington, this includes, exercise
riders, pony persons, assistant trainers and grooms.
This also includes using licensed jockeys for morning
workouts, because they are covered by L&I when
performing exercise rider duties and must have an
exercise rider license.
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If
you intend to participate in horse racing at
a track or off-track-betting facility under
the jurisdiction of the Washington Horse Racing
Commission (WHRC) you must apply for a WHRC
license. License applications are supplied by
the WHRC and may be obtained at the main office
in Olympia, field offices, or by downloading
from this site.
