The Loophole Draining Washington's Industrial Insurance

One change in the industrial insurance commission law that the new commissioners should recommend to the next legislature, and which the present commission ought to have made to the last legislature, is a system for the prevention of fraud regarding payments to the funds by employers. An investigation has demonstrated that honest and responsible firms and individuals are being made to bear the burden that should properly fall on operators who escape payment of premiums under the lease system. An examination of records shows that certain mining companies and logging firms have evaded payment of premiums by the simple plan of going out of business or giving up the lease to another. These firms or individuals operate a mine or log a tract of land with rented outfits and do not own the mine or the timber. They frequently have accidents, which calls attention to the fact that they have not paid the premium assessments. Then the commission levies an assessment against them and sues to recover, but before judgment is secured, the operator vanishes, and when an attempt is made to levy upon property, it is found that there is no property for the state to seize. The owner of the mine or the timber has taken the property back, the operating outfit has been taken over by the owner, and the other loggers and mining companies of the state must bear the burden of all the injuries sustained by the vanished lessee, who has pocketed the profits.