Revised Code of Washington
Chapter 19.31 - Employment Agencies.
19.31.020 - Definitions.

RCW 19.31.020
Definitions.

Unless a different meaning is clearly required by the context, the following words and phrases, as hereinafter used in this chapter, shall have the following meanings:
(1) "Applicant," except when used to describe an applicant for an employment agency license, means any person, whether employed or unemployed, seeking or entering into any arrangement for his or her employment or change of his or her employment through the medium or service of an employment agency.
(2) "Career guidance and counseling service" means any person, firm, association, or corporation conducting a business that engages in any of the following activities:
(a) Career assessment, planning, or testing through individual counseling or group seminars, classes, or workshops;
(b) Skills analysis, resume writing, and preparation through individual counseling or group seminars, classes, or workshops;
(c) Training in job search or interviewing skills through individual counseling or group seminars, classes, or workshops: PROVIDED, That the career guidance and counseling service does not engage in any of the following activities:
(i) Contacts employers on behalf of an applicant or in any way intercedes between employer and applicant;
(ii) Provides information on specific job openings;
(iii) Holds itself out as able to provide referrals to specific companies or individuals who have specific job openings.
(3) "Director" shall mean the director of licensing.
(4) "Employer" means any person, firm, corporation, partnership, or association employing or seeking to enter into an arrangement to employ a person through the medium or service of an employment agency.
(5) "Employment agency" is synonymous with "agency" and shall mean any business in which any part of the business gross or net income is derived from a fee received from applicants, and in which any of the following activities are engaged in:
(a) The offering, promising, procuring, or attempting to procure employment for applicants;
(b) The giving of information regarding where and from whom employment may be obtained; or
(c) The sale of a list of jobs or a list of names of persons or companies accepting applications for specific positions, in any form.
In addition the term "employment agency" shall mean and include any person, bureau, employment listing service, employment directory, organization, or school which for profit, by advertisement or otherwise, offers, as one of its main objects or purposes, to procure employment for any person who pays for its services, or which collects tuition, or charges for service of any nature, where the main object of the person paying the same is to secure employment. It also includes any business that provides a resume to an individual and provides that person with a list of names to whom the resume may be sent or provides that person with preaddressed envelopes to be mailed by the individual or by the business itself, if the list of names or the preaddressed envelopes have been compiled and are represented by the business as having job openings. The term "employment agency" shall not include labor union organizations, temporary service contractors, proprietary schools operating within the scope of activities for which the school is licensed under chapter 28C.10 RCW, nonprofit schools and colleges, career guidance and counseling services, employment directories that are sold in a manner that allows the applicant to examine the directory before purchase, theatrical agencies, farm labor contractors, or the Washington state employment agency.
(6) "Employment directory" means any business operated by any person that provides in any form, including written or verbal, lists of employers, does not provide lists of specified positions of employment, that holds itself out to applicants as able to provide information on employment in specific industries or geographical areas, and that charges a fee to the applicant for its services.
(7) "Employment listing service" means any business operated by any person that provides in any form, including written or verbal, lists of specified positions of employment available with any employer other than itself or that holds itself out to applicants as able to provide information about specific positions of employment available with any employer other than itself, and that charges a fee to the applicant for its services and does not set up interviews or otherwise intercede between employer and applicant.
(8) "Farm labor contractor" means any person, or his or her agent, who, for a fee, employs workers to render personal services in connection with the production of any farm products, to, for, or under the direction of an employer engaged in the growing, producing, or harvesting of farm products, or who recruits, solicits, supplies, or hires workers on behalf of an employer engaged in the growing, producing, or harvesting of farm products or who provides in connection with recruiting, soliciting, supplying, or hiring workers engaged in the growing, producing, or harvesting of farm products, one or more of the following services: Furnishes board, lodging, or transportation for such workers, supervises, times, checks, counts, sizes, or otherwise directs or measures their work; or disburses wage payments to such persons.
(9) "Fee" means anything of value. The term includes money or other valuable consideration or services or the promise of money or other valuable consideration or services, received directly or indirectly by an employment agency from a person seeking employment, in payment for the service.
(10) "Person" includes any individual, firm, corporation, partnership, association, company, society, manager, contractor, subcontractor, bureau, agency, service, office, or an agent or employee of any of the foregoing.
(11) "Resume" means a document of the applicant's employment history that is approved, received, and paid for by the applicant.
(12) "Temporary service contractors" shall mean any person, firm, association, or corporation conducting a business which consists of employing individuals directly for the purpose of furnishing such individuals on a part time or temporary help basis to others.
(13) "Theatrical agency" means any person who, for a fee or commission, procures on behalf of an individual or individuals, employment or engagements for circus, vaudeville, the variety field, the legitimate theater, motion pictures, radio, television, phonograph recordings, transcriptions, opera, concert, ballet, modeling, or other entertainments, exhibitions, or performances. The term "theatrical agency" does not include any person charging an applicant a fee prior to or in advance of:
(a) Procuring employment for the applicant;
(b) Giving or providing the applicant information regarding where or from whom employment may be obtained;
(c) Allowing or requiring the applicant to participate in any instructional class, audition, or career guidance or counseling; or
(d) Allowing the applicant to be eligible for employment through the person.

[ 2011 c 336 § 531; 1998 c 228 § 1; 1993 c 499 § 1; 1990 c 70 § 1; 1979 c 158 § 82; 1977 ex.s. c 51 § 1; 1969 ex.s. c 228 § 2.]
NOTES:

Reviser's note: The definitions in this section have been alphabetized pursuant to RCW 1.08.015(2)(k).