PWDA showroom personnel hammered by workers’ comp payroll classification

APRIL, 2005— BY JIM CARTER, PWDA Broker of Record

As high-end decorator’s showrooms become more and more prevalent among PWDA members, a peculiarity in the California workers’ compensation payroll classification system is becoming a thorn in the side of most PWDA members. Under current Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau (WCIRB) guidelines, the payroll for showroom personnel is supposed to be classified in the plumbing supply distributor primary code-8111. This means that your highly paid, upscale showroom salespeople are being charged the same workers’ compensation rate as your warehouse employees and truck drivers. This is totally unfair.

On February 9, Paul Davis, Executive Vice President of the Western Suppliers Association, and Dave Alley, Manager of Meyer Plumbing of Oakland’s showroom, met with three representatives of California’s WCIRB to explore the feasibility of moving showroom employees to a much less expensive code. Also attending were myself and Jim Juzeler the brokers of record for the PWDA, the WSA and the PSDA.

It was an informative and the WCIRB is very open to researching whether a different classification for showroom employees would be viable. However, the WCIRB wanted to make sure of the support of the associations before moving forward.

At the Western Suppliers Association board of director’s meeting on February 24, this issue was extensively discussed. The board overwhelmingly voted to request the WCIRB to move forward with their research. Bob Bluth, Executive Vice President of the Pacific Southwest Distributor Association, endorsed the initiative on February 24 as well.

The PWDA will aggressively push the WCIRB to move forward with their research. We’ll keep all of our members informed of our progress.

Jim Carter of Suhr Risk Services (1338 Bayshore Hwy, Burlingame, California 94010; Tel: 650-227-1441, email jim.carter@insuhr.com) is the Broker of Record for PWDA.