WC & EL / PART TWO / CLASSIFICATION CODE INTERPRETATIONS

Code 8755 applies to employers engaged in operations of a labor union.  This classification includes labor union officials, business agents, organizers and others that are engaged in conducting business relative to union policies, procedures, contracts and other matters inside the office as well as away from the office.

Labor unions ensure that members of the union are conducting business in an appropriate manner.  Members of the union are not contemplated under this classification’s interpretation as they are employees of other businesses that are unionized.

1. Labor Union – clerical office employees.  Refer to Code 8810 “Clerical Office Employees – NOC.”

2. Labor Union – hearing representatives – representing claimants at the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board – no other duties.  Refer to Code 8742 “Salespersons, Collectors or Messengers – Outside.”

Includes mixing of thinners or solvents, but no nitrocellulose manufacturing.

Code 4439 applies to employers engaged in manufacturing lacquers or spirit varnishes.  An employer will receive color pigments (powder or liquid), solvents or thinners such as (alcohol, methanol, butyl acetate, xylene), resins, and ester gums.  The materials are mixed in vats or tanks according to formula and the ingredients are stirred until the resins are completely dispersed.  Lacquer and varnishes are made the same way, however, lacquers contain more inflammable materials.

Spirit varnishes are made from resin or a film forming substance in a solvent that harden by evaporation when applied to surfaces.  The varnishes must be made at a temperature below the flash point of the solvents used.  The resulting mixtures are then filled into tanks or drums, labeled and shipped to the employer’s customers.

Shellac

1. Oleo-resinous varnish, enamel paint or other types of paint including calcimine or whitewash.  Refer to Code 4558 “Paint Mfg.”

2.  Manufacturing:
   1. Thinners or solvents.  Refer to Code 4828 “Chemical Blending or Mixing – NOC – All Operations & Drivers” and Code 4829 “Chemical Mfg. – NOC – All Operations & Drivers.”

Code 0042 and Code  9102 “Park – NOC – All Employees & Drivers” shall not be assigned to the same risk unless the operations described by these classifications are conducted as separate and distinct businesses. 

Code 0042 applies to employers engaged in planting or care of lawns, gardens, trees, shrubs, flowers, and landscaping or other similar operations at the premises of the customer.

This classification includes grass cutting, weed control, lawn spraying, laying out grounds, tree spraying, or fumigating. 

The on-grade construction of walkways, patios, and retaining walls using dry laid segmental blocks and pavers as part of a landscaping project is also included.

When planting at customers’ sites, this classification includes the preparation of the ground (but not preliminary clearing or grading) plus the replacement of rocks for rock gardens and railroad ties to prevent soil erosion, and the placing of stones, wood chips, and similar materials on the ground after planting.

This classification also includes silviculture operations such as brush clearing, planting of seedlings or transplants, cleaning, weeding or improvement cutting for the purpose of promoting the growth of remaining trees.

Clearing the existing right of way exclusively by a contractor is assignable to this classification.

This classification also applies in connection with street or road construction operations such as sodding, seeding, planting, and similar landscaping work necessary for the beautification of roadsides and includes drivers.

• Domestic Service Contractor – outside
• Beach Combing
• Surface dressing, seeding, sodding or planting in connection with dam construction operations  
• Tennis Courts – maintaining grass courts

1. Clearing or grading of land or excavation and removing tree stumps.  Refer to Code 6217 “Excavation – NOC – All Operations to Completion & Drivers.”

2. Street or road construction – work such as grading shoulders, setting guard rails, building drainage ditches and all other operations incidental to street or road construction.  Refer to Code 5506 “Street or Road Construction – Paving or Repaving – All Operations to Completion & Drivers” or Code 5507 “Street or Road Construction – Sub-Surface Work – All Operations to Completion & Drivers.”   

3. Growing flowers or plants in greenhouses.  Refer to Code 0035 “Florist – Cultivating or Gardening & Drivers.”

4. Tree surgery, pruning, repairing or trimming operations at customers’ premises.  Refer to Code  0106  “Tree Pruning, Repairing or Trimming – All Operations to Completion & Drivers.”        

5. Building garden walls or walks from brick, concrete blocks or stone.  Refer to Code 5022 “Masonry – NOC – All Operations to Completion.”

6. Pouring cement for walkways or garden edging.  Refer to Code 5221 “Concrete or Cement Work – Floors, Driveways, Yards or Sidewalks – All Operations to Completion & Drivers.”

7. Growing of bushes, trees and shrubs including incidental landscaping operations.  Refer to Code 0005 “Nursery Employees & Drivers.”

8. Carpentry – building decks, planters, benches, etc.  Refer to Code 5403 “Carpentry – NOC – All Operations to Completion.”

9. Logging or lumbering.  Refer to Code 2702 “Logging or Lumbering & Drivers.”

10. Municipalities only – landscaping maintenance along parkways.  Refer to Code 9102 “Park – NOC – All Employees & Drivers.”    

Code 5443 applies to employers engaged in lathing work.  Lathing work is performed by specialist contractors that install metal, wood or gypsum lath in strips or other sheet forms to provide a support base for the application of plaster or stucco coatings.  This type of work may be done on interior or exterior building surfaces.  Lath is attached to studs and joists.  This classification also includes using control joints, corner beads and screeds to reinforce and provide structural support for the lath that is installed.  Control joints are metal strips put in place to relieve strain around large areas such as ceilings and walls.  Corner beads are set in place to provide reinforced corners and are usually installed over gypsum surfaces and screeds are used as separators, which separate plaster from concrete and other surfaces.

Once the lathing material is installed, the plastering contractor can apply the plaster or stucco finish. 

1. Metal lathing used as a reinforcement for concrete shall be assigned to the appropriate concrete construction classification.  Refer to Code 5213 “Concrete Construction – NOC – All Operations to Completion” and Code 5221 “Concrete or Cement Work – Floors, Driveways, Yards or Sidewalks – All Operations to Completion & Drivers.”

2. Stucco or plastering work. 
   1. Exterior.  Refer to Code 5022 “Masonry – NOC – All Operations to Completion.”
   2. Interior.  Refer to Code 5480 “Plastering – NOC – All Operations to Completion & Drivers.”

3. Wallboard installation.  Refer to Code 5445 “Wallboard Installation – Within Buildings – All Operations to Completion & Drivers.”

Shall not be assigned to a risk engaged in operations described by another classification unless the operations subject to Code 2640 are conducted as a separate and distinct business.

Code 2640 applies to employers that specialize in embossing leather.  Leather embossing is done by placing cut leather on a rolling press where the movable upper plate containing the embossed plate is pressed under heat and great pressure.  This process creates the desired grain of leather.  The leather may be buffed and stretched before being placed into the press.  Foil may be applied in some cases, which is glued to the leather and then heat sealed to produce a design on the leather.

This classification is applicable to employers who are engaged in embossing leather as a finishing element.  It is not intended to be used in connection with manufacturing leather items such as belts, wallets, etc. or when performed by an employer engaged in operations that are subject to Code 2623 “Leather Mfg. – Patent or Enamel.”  Any embossing done by such manufacturers is to be included under the classification applicable to the manufacturing operations. 

1.  Manufacturing:
   1. Leather – tanning hides, dehairing animal hides, leather splitting, leather finishing, leather dressing, leather – patent or enamel leather.  Wool pulling.  Refer to Code 2623 “Leather Mfg. – Patent or Enamel.”
   2. Leather clothing.  Refer to Code 2501 “Clothing Mfg.”   
   3. Leather goods items such as bags (no luggage or pocketbooks), backpacks, knapsacks, industrial belting, belts, wallets or watch bands.  Refer to Code 2688 “Leather Goods Mfg. – NOC.” 
   4. Leather luggage.  Refer to Code 2683 “Luggage Mfg.”  
   5. Leather pocketbook.  Refer to Code 2689 “Pocketbook Mfg.” 
   6. Pocketbook frame.  Refer to Code 3146 “Hardware Mfg. – NOC.”
   7. Leather shoe or boot.  Refer to Code 2660 “Boot or Shoe Mfg. – NOC.”     
2.  Leather finishing (dressing) operations when no tanning operations are performed are subject to the following classifications:
   1. Coloring or painting.  Refer to Code 9501 “Painting – Shop Only & Drivers.” 
   2. Skiving.  Refer to Code 2688 “Leather Goods Mfg. – NOC.”          

Code 2688 applies to employers engaged in manufacturing miscellaneous leather and imitation leather products such as wallets, billfolds, tobacco pouches, backpacks, knapsacks, cosmetic bags and belts.  This classification also applies to employers engaged in manufacturing shoe parts that are used by others to manufacture complete shoes.  Products include leather welting, fiber and leather heels, leather soles, innersoles, tongues, linings, facings, heel lifts, shoe counters, and box toes.  Includes counter, heel and sole cutting.

Additionally, contemplated under this classification is manufacturing of footballs, soccer balls volleyballs and basketballs.

Leather skiving

1. Manufacturing:
   1. Bladder.  Refer to Code 4410 “Rubber Goods Mfg. – NOC.”
   2. Pocketbook or purse.  Refer to Code 2689 “Pocketbook Mfg.”  

2. Leather splitting or tanning.  Refer to Code 2623 “Leather Mfg. – Patent or Enamel.”

Code 2623 applies to employers engaged in tanning hides, patent or enamel leather manufacturing, leather splitting, finishing, or dressing, dehairing animal hides, tanning, or wool pulling.

Tanning involves receiving cured or raw hides from which hair is removed by soaking skin in lime and other chemicals and then scraping with dehairing and wet shaving machines, or beamster machines.  The extraneous fat and tissue are removed from the inner side of the skins by machines with rubber rollers and a shaft to which spiral knives are attached.  The hides are tumbled in solvent filled drums to remove the fats and oils.  The tanned hides are split, dyed and finished.     

The clean skins are tanned by soaking them in a solution of either vegetable tanning (from bark or other vegetation), common salt solution or chromate of soda and acid for mineral tanning (also known as chrome tanning).  Impregnating with oils, grease or waxes (fat liquoring or stuffing) is also part of the tanning process.  This is done after hides have been run through wringers to squeeze out chemicals and hung on racks to dry.

Operations such as boarding, staking, toggling, buffing, abrading and/or splitting are also contemplated under this classification.

If the employer also finishes (dresses) the leather, such finishing operations are inclusive under this classification. 

Tanned hides are split into desired thickness, degreased, given a coat of linseed oil and lampblack thinned with naphtha, and again coated with a mixture of linseed oil and pyroxylin.  Stock is then backed and rubbed down with pumice.  The coating (adding varnish and coloring), baking, and rubbing down may be repeated several times.

There are three methods of pulling wool from pelts.  The simplest is “sweating” the pelts until wool is loosened to be pulled by hand or machine.  This method may damage the valuable skin.  The lime process involves the painting of the flesh side of the pelts with lime.  This loosens the wool, but it may cause skin damage and have a negative effect on the dyeing quality of the wool.  The depilatory process differs from the lime process in that a solution of sodium sulfate, sulphuric acid, and oyster shells is used instead of lime.

1. Leather finishing (dressing) operations when no tanning operations are performed are subject to the following classifications:
   1. Embossing.  Refer to Code 2640 “Leather Embossing.”
   2. Skiving.  Refer to Code 2688 "Leateher Goods Mfg. - NOC."

Code 6045 applies to employers engaged in construction of levees, usually conducted some distance back from the river’s edge, to prevent the overflow of rivers where the principal operations involve earthmoving or placing, including clearing of land, excavation, filling, grading, etc., involving the use of earthmoving equipment such as draglines, graders, scrapers, bulldozers, dump trucks, etc.  In addition, the levee slopes are seeded, and in some cases, are paved in part with asphalt, concrete, soil, cement, etc.

1. Jetty or breakwater construction:
   1. No caisson, cofferdam or pile driving work.  Refer to Code 6005 “Breakwater or Jetty Construction – All Operations to Completion & Drivers.”
   2. Sea wall of concrete piles.  Refer to Code 6003 “Pile Driving – NOC – All Operations to Completion & Drivers.”

Code 7377 applies to employers engaged in providing private limousine or private livery service using private passenger type vehicles which are rented from a garage at a flat rate (per hour or per day) and which includes a chauffeur in attendance for use on defined trips in connection with occasions such as weddings, funerals, business or social functions, shopping trips, long distance trips and similar purposes.

Not applicable to employers engaged in providing public livery or taxicab service where vehicles are available for immediate hire or cruise to solicit business with fares that are determined by zone, mileage or meter.  Such vehicles are radio dispatched from bases such as station, stand, hotel, dock, highway or other public place.

1. Garage employees that repair limousines and/or funeral cars.  Refer to Code 8385 “Bus Company – Garage Employees.”

2. Bus companies.  Refer to Code 8394 “Bus Company – All Other Employees & Drivers” and Code 8385 “Bus Company – Garage Employees.”

3. Ambulance companies.  Refer to Code 8394 “Bus Company – All Other Employees & Drivers” and Code 8385 “Bus Company – Garage Employees.”

4. Funeral parlor own employees driving hearses, limousines and flower cars.  Refer to Code 9620 “Funeral Director & Drivers.”

Code 2594 applies to employers engaged in renting linens, towels, uniforms, aprons or diapers.  This classification also includes the laundering or dry cleaning of items that are rented.  In order for this classification to be applied, the employer must launder and/or dry clean the items that they rent to their customers.

1. Laundering or dry cleaning:
   1. Retail customers.  Refer to Code 2590 “Dry Cleaning or Laundry – Retail & Route Salespersons, Drivers.”
   2. Commercial concerns.  Refer to Code 2591 “Dry Cleaning or Laundry – Commercial & Route Salespersons, Drivers.”         

2. Tailoring or alterations when performed by a custom clothing or tailor shop regardless if the articles were custom manufactured or not by the same employer.  Refer to Code 2503 “Custom Clothing or Tailor Shop – Alterations – No Mass Mfg., Dry Cleaning or Laundering.”                

3. Towel, linen, uniform, apron or diaper rental – no laundering.  Refer to Code 8032 “Clothing or Wearing Apparel Store – Wholesale.”

Code 8288 and 2089 “Packing House – All Operations” shall not be assigned to the same risk unless the operations described by these classifications are conducted as separate and distinct businesses.  No butchering.

Code 8288 applies to the operation of livestock or cattle dealers which involve purchasing the animals from farmers or ranchers and driving or delivering same to shipping points.  It includes holding and feeding the animals when they are held over awaiting shipment.  The classification contemplates the loading of the livestock or cattle into railroad cars and the feeding and watering during transit.  Commission merchants, who usually act as the intermediary between the dealers and the stockyards or final purchasers, usually maintain offices near the stockyards.  Their buyers, who go out and look over stock which they may purchase from the dealers, are contemplated within the scope of this classification, as are employees who inspect stock as it arrives at the stockyard, and employees who show the cattle or stock to prospective customers.

This classification also applies to livestock sales companies involving the exhibition and sale of cattle, sheep, hogs, etc., and sales stables where horses or mules are exhibited and sold.

This classification also applies to stockyards at cattle concentration points, which may be maintained by packing houses, stock associations or private concerns.  The operations involve unloading the stock from railroad cars and driving or herding same into pens; the care, feeding and watering of the stock while at the yard and the maintenance of pens, grounds, etc., as well as the reloading of the animals if the stockyard is located at an intermediate point.

This classification also applies to insureds engaged exclusively in operating commercial feedlots where feeding cattle for other individuals or concerns is undertaken.  All cattle are delivered to or shipped from the feedlots by the cattle owners or independent contractors.  The cattle are unloaded, placed in pens, ear tagged or branded, vaccinated, sprayed, fed and watered.  Other incidental operations include cleaning of pens, general maintenance, receipt and storage of grain, silage or other feed ingredients and incidental feed milling of formulated feed used exclusively to feed the cattle at the feedlots.

1. Breeding:
   1. Livestock.  Refer to Code 0006 “Farm – NOC & Drivers.”
   2. Poultry.  Refer to Code 0034 “Poultry Farm & Drivers.”

2. Butchering and slaughtering livestock.  Refer to Code 2081 “Butchering.”

3. Meat packing, butchering and handling livestock.  Refer to Code 2089 “Packing House – All Operations.”

4. Slaughtering, eviscerating, packing, or freezing:
   1. Poultry by a poultry wholesale dealer.  Refer to Code 8021 “Fish, Poultry or Meat Dealer – Wholesale.”
   2. Poultry by a poultry retail store.  Refer to Code 8031 “Fish, Poultry or Meat Store – Retail.”
   3. Poultry by a farm.  Refer to Code 2089 “Packing House – All Operations.”

5. Stockyard operated by butchers.  Refer to Code 2081 “Butchering.”

Code 2702 and Code 8232 “Building Material Dealer – No Second-Hand Material & Local Managers, Drivers” shall not be assigned to the same risk unless the operations described by these classifications are conducted as separate and distinct businesses.

Code 2702 applies to employers engaged in logging or lumbering operations.  The fallen trees are cut to various lengths.  After the trees have been cut, the logs are loaded onto skeleton cars or trucks and transported to a sawmill.  This classification includes transporting of logs to the mill, construction, operation, maintenance or extension of logging roads or logging railroads.  Also, included under this classification is bark peeling at the job site.  

Stump removal is also included when this operation is performed in connection along with other logging or tree removal operations.  Timber cutting and removal and incidental brush cutting and removal are also inclusive under this classification.

Dam or lock construction - timber cutting and removal

1. Tree pruning, repairing or trimming by a tree service maintenance contractor.  Refer to Code 0106 “Tree Pruning, Repairing or Trimming – All Operations to Completion & Drivers.”      

2. Contractors engaged exclusively in clearing an existing right of way.  Refer to Code 0042 “Landscape Gardening – All Operations to Completion & Drivers” or Code 6217 “Excavation – NOC – All Operations to Completion & Drivers” depending on the character of the operations.

Code 2683 applies to employers engaged in manufacturing luggage, attaché cases, briefcases, suitcases, golf bags, airplane hand luggage, musical instrument cases and other similar products that are made from canvas, leather, metal, plastic or vinyl.

This classification also applies to manufacturing various types of trunks such as wardrobe, steamer, box or dress, theatrical and sample trunks.

1. Manufacturing:
   1. Pocketbook.  Refer to Code 2689 “Pocketbook Mfg.” 
   2. Pocketbook frame.  Refer to Code 3146 “Hardware Mfg. – NOC.”