S-0889.1          _______________________________________________

                                 SENATE BILL 5384

                  _______________________________________________

State of Washington              52nd Legislature             1991 Regular Session

By Senators Roach, Sutherland and Skratek.

Read first time January 30, 1991.  Referred to Committee on Commerce & Labor.Extending collective bargaining laws to uniformed personnel of all cities, towns, and counties.

     AN ACT Relating to public employees' collective bargaining; and amending RCW 41.56.030.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

     Sec. 1.  RCW 41.56.030 and 1989 c 275 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:

     As used in this chapter:

     (1) "Public employer" means any officer, board, commission, council, or other person or body acting on behalf of any public body governed by this chapter as designated by RCW 41.56.020, or any subdivision of such public body.  For the purposes of this section, the public employer of district court employees for wage-related matters is the respective county legislative authority, or person or body acting on behalf of the legislative authority, and the public employer for nonwage-related matters is the judge or judge's designee of the respective district court.

     (2) "Public employee" means any employee of a public employer except any person (a) elected by popular vote, or (b) appointed to office pursuant to statute, ordinance, or resolution for a specified term of office by the executive head or body of the public employer, or (c) whose duties as deputy, administrative assistant, or secretary necessarily imply a confidential relationship to the executive head or body of the applicable bargaining unit, or any person elected by popular vote or appointed to office pursuant to statute, ordinance, or resolution for a specified term of office by the executive head or body of the public employer, or (d) who is a personal assistant to a district judge or court commissioner.  For the purpose of (d) of this subsection, no more than one assistant for each judge or commissioner may be excluded from a bargaining unit.

     (3) "Bargaining representative" means any lawful organization which has as one of its primary purposes the representation of employees in their employment relations with employers.

     (4) "Collective bargaining" means the performance of the mutual obligations of the public employer and the exclusive bargaining representative to meet at reasonable times, to confer and negotiate in good faith, and to execute a written agreement with respect to grievance procedures and collective negotiations on personnel matters, including wages, hours, and working conditions, which may be peculiar to an appropriate bargaining unit of such public employer, except that by such obligation neither party shall be compelled to agree to a proposal or be required to make a concession unless otherwise provided in this chapter.  In the case of the Washington state patrol, "collective bargaining" shall not include wages and wage-related matters.

     (5) "Commission" means the public employment relations commission.

     (6) "Executive director" means the executive director of the commission.

     (7) "Uniformed personnel" means (a) law enforcement officers as defined in RCW 41.26.030 ((as now or hereafter amended, of cities with a population of fifteen thousand  or more or law enforcement officers)) employed by the governing body of any city, town, or county ((of the second class or larger)), or (b) fire fighters as that term is defined in RCW 41.26.030((, as now or hereafter amended)).