Passed by the House March 10, 2020 Yeas 97 Nays 0 Speaker of the House of Representatives Passed by the Senate March 10, 2020 Yeas 49 Nays 0 President of the Senate	CERTIFICATE I, Bernard Dean, Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives of the State of Washington, do hereby certify that the attached is HOUSE BILL 2739 as passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate on the dates hereon set forth. Chief Clerk Chief Clerk
Approved	FILED
	Secretary of State State of Washington

AN ACT Relating to adjusting certain requirements of the shared leave program; amending RCW 41.04.655 and 41.04.665; adding a new section to chapter 41.04 RCW; and declaring an emergency.

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the definitions in this section apply throughout RCW 41.04.650 through 41.04.670, 28A.400.380, and section 7, chapter 93, Laws of 1989.

(1) "Domestic violence" means: (a) Physical harm, bodily injury, assault, or the infliction of fear of imminent physical harm, bodily injury, or assault, between family or household members as defined in RCW 26.50.010; (b) sexual assault of one family or household member by another family or household member; or (c) stalking as defined in RCW 9A.46.110 of one family or household member by another family or household member.

(2) "Employee" means any employee of the state, including employees of school districts and educational service districts, who are entitled to accrue sick leave or annual leave and for whom accurate leave records are maintained.

(3) "Parental leave" means leave to bond and care for a newborn child after birth or to bond and care for a child after placement for adoption or foster care((, for a period of up to sixteen weeks after the birth or placement)).

(6) "Service in the uniformed services" means the performance of duty on a voluntary or involuntary basis in a uniformed service under competent authority and includes active duty, active duty for training, initial active duty for training, inactive duty training, full-time national guard duty including state-ordered active duty, and a period for which a person is absent from a position of employment for the purpose of an examination to determine the fitness of the person to perform any such duty.

(9) "State agency" or "agency" means departments, offices, agencies, or institutions of state government, the legislature, institutions of higher education, school districts, and educational service districts.

(10) "Uniformed services" means the armed forces, the army national guard, and the air national guard of any state, territory, commonwealth, possession, or district when engaged in active duty for training, inactive duty training, full-time national guard duty, or state active duty, the commissioned corps of the public health service, the coast guard, and any other category of persons designated by the president of the United States in time of war or national emergency.

(a)(i) The employee suffers from, or has a relative or household member suffering from, an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition which is of an extraordinary or severe nature;

(iii) The employee is a current member of the uniformed services or is a veteran as defined under RCW 41.04.005, and is attending medical appointments or treatments for a service connected injury or disability;

(iv) The employee is a spouse of a current member of the uniformed services or a veteran as defined under RCW 41.04.005, who is attending medical appointments or treatments for a service connected injury or disability and requires assistance while attending appointment or treatment;

(v) A state of emergency has been declared anywhere within the United States by the federal or any state government and the employee has needed skills to assist in responding to the emergency or its aftermath and volunteers his or her services to either a governmental agency or to a nonprofit organization engaged in humanitarian relief in the devastated area, and the governmental agency or nonprofit organization accepts the employee's offer of volunteer services;

(b) The illness, injury, impairment, condition, call to service, emergency volunteer service, or consequence of domestic violence, sexual assault, temporary layoff under section 3(5), chapter 32, Laws of 2010 1st sp. sess., or stalking has caused, or is likely to cause, the employee to:

(iv) Annual leave and sick leave reserves if the employee qualifies under (a)(vii) or (viii) of this subsection((. However, the employee is not required to deplete all of his or her annual leave and sick leave and can maintain up to forty hours of annual leave and forty hours of sick leave in reserve));

(f) The employee has diligently pursued and been found to be ineligible for benefits under chapter 51.32 RCW if he or she qualifies under (a)(i) of this subsection))(i) Until the expiration of proclamation 20-05, issued February 29, 2020, by the governor and declaring a state of emergency in the state of Washington, or any amendment thereto, whichever is later, an agency head may permit an employee to receive shared leave under this section if the employee, or a relative or household member, is isolated or quarantined as recommended, requested, or ordered by a public health official or health care provider as a result of suspected or confirmed infection with or exposure to the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19). An agency head may permit use of shared leave under this subsection (1)(f) without considering the requirements of (a) through (e) of this subsection.

(ii) The office of the governor must provide notice of the expiration of proclamation 20-05, or any amendment thereto, whichever is later, to the chief clerk of the house of representatives, the secretary of the senate, the office of the code reviser, and others as deemed appropriate by the office of the governor.

(2)(a) The agency head shall determine the amount of leave, if any, which an employee may receive under this section. However, the agency head may not prevent an employee from using shared leave intermittently or on nonconsecutive days so long as the leave has not been returned under subsection (10) of this section. In addition, an employee shall not receive a total of more than five hundred twenty-two days of leave, except that, a supervisor may authorize leave in excess of five hundred twenty-two days in extraordinary circumstances for an employee qualifying for the shared leave program because he or she is suffering from an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition which is of an extraordinary or severe nature. Shared leave received under the uniformed service shared leave pool in RCW 41.04.685 is not included in this total.

(b) An employee receiving industrial insurance wage replacement benefits may not receive greater than twenty-five percent of his or her base salary from the receipt of shared leave under this section.

(3) The agency head must allow employees who are veterans, as defined under RCW 41.04.005, and their spouses, to access shared leave from the veterans' in-state service shared leave pool upon employment.

(a) An employee who has an accrued annual leave balance of more than ten days may request that the head of the agency for which the employee works transfer a specified amount of annual leave to another employee authorized to receive leave under subsection (1) of this section. In no event may the employee request a transfer of an amount of leave that would result in his or her annual leave account going below ten days. For purposes of this subsection (4)(a), annual leave does not accrue if the employee receives compensation in lieu of accumulating a balance of annual leave.

(b) An employee may transfer a specified amount of sick leave to an employee requesting shared leave only when the donating employee retains a minimum of one hundred seventy-six hours of sick leave after the transfer.

(c) An employee may transfer, under the provisions of this section relating to the transfer of leave, all or part of his or her personal holiday, as that term is defined under RCW 1.16.050, or as such holidays are provided to employees by agreement with a school district's board of directors if the leave transferred under this subsection does not exceed the amount of time provided for personal holidays under RCW 1.16.050.

(5) An employee of an institution of higher education under RCW 28B.10.016, school district, or educational service district who does not accrue annual leave but does accrue sick leave and who has an accrued sick leave balance of more than twenty-two days may request that the head of the agency for which the employee works transfer a specified amount of sick leave to another employee authorized to receive leave under subsection (1) of this section. In no event may such an employee request a transfer that would result in his or her sick leave account going below twenty-two days. Transfers of sick leave under this subsection are limited to transfers from employees who do not accrue annual leave. Under this subsection, "sick leave" also includes leave accrued pursuant to RCW 28A.400.300(1)(b) or 28A.310.240(1) with compensation for illness, injury, and emergencies.

(7) Leave transferred under this section may be transferred from employees of one agency to an employee of the same agency or, with the approval of the heads of both agencies, to an employee of another state agency.

(8) While an employee is on leave transferred under this section, he or she shall continue to be classified as a state employee and shall receive the same treatment in respect to salary, wages, and employee benefits as the employee would normally receive if using accrued annual leave or sick leave.

(a) All salary and wage payments made to employees while on leave transferred under this section shall be made by the agency employing the person receiving the leave. The value of leave transferred shall be based upon the leave value of the person receiving the leave.

(b) In the case of leave transferred by an employee of one agency to an employee of another agency, the agencies involved shall arrange for the transfer of funds and credit for the appropriate value of leave.

(i) Pursuant to rules adopted by the office of financial management, funds shall not be transferred under this section if the transfer would violate any constitutional or statutory restrictions on the funds being transferred.

(ii) The office of financial management may adjust the appropriation authority of an agency receiving funds under this section only if and to the extent that the agency's existing appropriation authority would prevent it from expending the funds received.

(iii) Where any questions arise in the transfer of funds or the adjustment of appropriation authority, the director of financial management shall determine the appropriate transfer or adjustment.

(10)(a) The value of any leave transferred under this section which remains unused shall be returned at its original value to the employee or employees who transferred the leave when the agency head finds that the leave is no longer needed or will not be needed at a future time in connection with the illness or injury for which the leave was transferred or for any other qualifying condition. Unused shared leave may not be returned until one of the following occurs:

(ii) The employee is released to full-time employment; has not received additional medical treatment for his or her current condition or any other qualifying condition for at least six months; and the employee's doctor has declined, in writing, the employee's request for a statement indicating the employee's condition has been resolved.

(b) If a shared leave account is closed and an employee later has a need to use shared leave due to the same condition listed in the closed account, the agency head must approve a new shared leave request for the employee.

(13) For the purposes of this section, "shortly deplete" means that the employee will have forty hours or less of the applicable leave types under subsection (1)(d) of this section. However, the employee is not required to deplete all of the employee's leave and can maintain up to forty hours of the applicable leave types in reserve.

(1) Parental leave received under RCW 41.04.665 must be used within the sixteen weeks immediately after birth or placement, except as provided in subsection (2) of this section.

(2) If a person receiving parental leave also receives leave due to a pregnancy disability, the parental leave may be taken in the sixteen weeks immediately after the pregnancy disability leave. However, parental leave may not be used more than one year after birth.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. Section 2 of this act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and takes effect immediately.