Rancho Mesa's Alyssa Burley and Account Executive of the Tree Care Group Rory Anderson discuss California’s new rule that requires tree care companies to carry workers’ compensation insurance.

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Director/Host: Alyssa Burley

Guest: Rory Anderson

Producer/Editor: Megan Lockhart

Music: "Home" by JHS Pedals, “News Room News” by Spence

transcript

[Introduction Music]

Alyssa Burley: Hi! This is Alyssa Burley with Rancho Mesa’s Media Communications and Client Services Department. Thank you for listening to today’s top Rancho Mesa news brought to you by our safety and risk management network, StudioOne™. Welcome back, everyone. My guest is Rory Anderson, Account Executive with Rancho Mesa. He specializes in commercial insurance for the tree care industry. Today, we're going to talk about California's new rule that requires tree care companies to carry workers compensation insurance. Rory, welcome to the show.

Rory Anderson: Alyssa, yeah, thanks for having me back. It's great to be here.

AB: Now we're nearing the end of the year, and this is a time when everyone starts to think about the changes that will go into effect starting January 1st as a result of recent legislation. So will you explain to our listeners what changed with regards to tree care companies and their workers compensation insurance and who is going to be affected by this?

RA: Yeah, absolutely. So within the last couple of weeks, if you're a licensed tree care company, you received a notice in the mail from the California State License Board (or the CSLB) stating that effective January 1st, 2023, the CSLB is now requiring that all companies with a D49 tree service contractor license must carry workers comp insurance regardless of whether or not they have employees. And basically, up until now, if you were a tree care company that had no employees, so it was just an owner business, you could qualify for an exemption from worker's comp, so you could still carry that D49 license, but you didn't have to carry worker's compensation insurance and effective January 1st, 2023, in California, that is changing.

AB: Okay, so why does the California State License Board and the governor support this change?

RA: Yeah, so that's a really good question. And basically, I read an article by the Red Bluff Daily News, and in that article they basically described that the California State License Board did some research and that research kind of confirms that many of the, approximately 50 to 60% of licensed contractors in California who claim that exemption to worker's comp actually do have employees. And that can get a little bit tricky because they're kind of skating by and getting by without doing it the right way. And not only does that really put the non-insured contractors and uninsured workers, the employees and the public at risk, but also what it does is it really does pose an issue of unfair advantage to those companies who don't carry workers comp. And it creates somewhat of a disadvantage for the tree service contractors who are really kind of trying to play by the rules, go legitimate. And, you know, because they're subject to higher business costs and workers comp isn't cheap.

AB: Yeah. So how will this affect your tree care clients?

RA: Yeah. So my clients specifically aren’t directly affected by this new rule because my clients already have worker's comp in place and if you’re a listener out there and you might not work with Rancho Mesa and if you do have worker's compensation in place, I would just simply confirm with your broker that you're all set to go and that your broker has properly provided a certificate of insurance to the California State License Board to show that you're currently covered. You can also check your license status on the CSLB website to make sure that you're all set there. And if you're a tree care company out there that's listening, that used to qualify for that exemption and you don't currently have employees, you can contact me to explore worker's comp options or, you know, you can reach out to any other insurance broker out there that can get you set up with that type of policy.

AB: All right. So if listeners have questions about their worker's compensation insurance, what's the best way to get in touch with you?

[Outro Music]

RA: Yeah, please, just give me a call. My phone number is 619-486-6437. Or you can send me an email at randerson@ranchomesa.com

AB: Rory, thank you for joining me in StudioOne™.

RA: My pleasure. Thanks, Alyssa.

AB: This is Alyssa Burley with Rancho Mesa. Thanks for tuning in to our latest episode produced by StudioOne™. For more information, visit us at ranchomesa.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.