The Public Employees' Collective Bargaining Act (PECBA) provides for collective bargaining of wages, hours, and working conditions with employees of cities, counties, and other political subdivisions. Police have the authority to collectively bargain under PECBA, as do the officers of the Washington State Patrol and the Department of Fish and Wildlife. PECBA is administered by the Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC). Under PECBA, grievance procedures and discipline are mandatory subjects of bargaining and the parties may agree to binding arbitration to resolve grievances.
Many police agencies in Washington are represented for the purposes of collective bargaining and have collective bargaining agreements that call for binding arbitration to resolve grievances. Grievance procedures vary depending on the agreement, but may include an agreed-upon list of arbitrators. The parties may also request a list of arbitrators from PERC, the American Arbitration Association, or the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.
Arbitrator Selection Procedures. An arbitrator selection procedure for grievance arbitrations for law enforcement personnel is established and applies to all grievance arbitrations for disciplinary actions, discharges, and terminations heard on or after January 1, 2022.
PERC must appoint a roster of 9 to 18 arbitrators for law enforcement personnel grievance arbitrations. The executive director assigns an arbitrator, or a panel of arbitrators, to grievance arbitrations in alphabetical order on a rotating basis. The parties to the arbitration may not participate in, negotiate for, or agree to the selection of a particular arbitrator or arbitration panel. Appointments are for three years and arbitrators may be re-appointed. PERC may remove an arbitrator from the roster through a majority vote.
PERC may only consider appointing individuals to the roster who possess a minimum of six years' experience as:
In making the appointments, PERC must consider a candidate's:
A person appointed to the roster must complete training required by PERC within six months of their appointment. PERC may establish training requirements by rule and may set fees to cover the costs of developing the training. At a minimum, the initial training must include at least six hours on the topics of:
Arbitrator decisions are binding and PERC must post the decisions on its website within 30 days after the decision is made. If an arbitrator is unable to hear the case within three months from the request for arbitration, the executive director must appoint the next arbitrator on the roster.
A grievance arbitration is a binding arbitration of a grievance under the grievance procedures of a collective bargaining agreement. A grievance is a dispute regarding any disciplinary action, discharge, or termination decision arising under a collective bargaining agreement covering law enforcement personnel.
Civilian Review of Law Enforcement Personnel. Public employers of law enforcement personnel are prohibited from entering into a collective bargaining agreement that prevents implementation of, alters, or suppresses a city or county ordinance or charter establishing civilian review of the discipline of law enforcement personnel.
Law Enforcement Personnel. Law enforcement personnel means any individual employed, hired, or otherwise commissioned to enforce criminal laws by any municipal, county, or state agency or department that has, as its primary function, the enforcement of criminal laws in general, rather than implementation or enforcement of laws related to specialized subject matter. Law enforcement personnel includes corrections officers employed by the Department of Corrections and officers employed by the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Law enforcement personnel does not include prosecutors or civilians hired to do administrative work.
The committee recommended a different version of the bill than what was heard. PRO: There is a need to have greater consistency with regard to arbitration decisions. Communities need certainty with regard to police discipline. If disciplinary decisions get overturned, the process loses credibility. Police officers should not get two bites at the apple with a whole new hearing at arbitration. The training requirements in the bill enhance arbitrators' ability to handle cases and they should have implicit bias training and training on the unique circumstances of law enforcement. Arbitration hearings should be made public and there should be some deference to management disciplinary decisions. Civilian review of law enforcement should not be undercut. The bill creates a repository for decisions, which will allow people to collect data and assess reforms. The bill preserves workers' rights to bargain and arbitrate while proposing meaningful reform.
CON: The Legislature should preserve the labor protections and practices currently in state law. The limited number of arbitrators may cause a backlog of cases and cause delays. Management prevails on half of arbitrations, which means the system is well balanced. The bill is an attack on workers' rights and tips the scale towards management. The title of the bill is too broad.
OTHER: Creating a pool of arbitrators is good, but limiting the size may cause delays. A pool of arbitrators already happens in practice. Most arbitrators would not have trouble meeting the requirements of the bill. The bill becomes undesirable if its amended to include anything that limits access to arbitration.