[atlas:bill]

AN ACT Relating to prohibiting strikes and lockouts under chapter 41.06 RCW; amending RCW 41.06.150 and 41.06.020; adding a new section to chapter 41.06 RCW; and prescribing penalties.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. A new section is added to chapter 41.06 RCW to read as follows:

(1) It is unlawful for an employee or an employee organization, directly or indirectly, to induce, instigate, encourage, authorize, ratify, or participate in a strike.

(2) It is unlawful for an employer to authorize, consent to, or condone a strike, to conduct a lockout, to pay or agree to pay an employee for any day in which the employee participates in a strike, or to pay or agree to pay any increase in compensation or benefits to an employee in response to or as a result of a strike or any act that violates subsection (1) of this section. It is unlawful for any representative of the employer to authorize, ratify, or participate in any violation of this subsection.

(3)(a) If a violation of subsection (1) or (2) of this section occurs, or is imminently threatened, any citizen domiciled within the jurisdictional boundaries of the state may petition the superior court of the county in which the labor dispute exists for an injunction restraining the violation or imminently threatened violation. Rules of civil procedure regarding injunctions apply to the action. However, the court shall grant a temporary injunction if it appears to the court that a violation has occurred or is imminently threatened; the plaintiff need not show that the violation or threatened violation would greatly or irreparably injure him or her. A bond may not be required of the plaintiff unless the court determines that a bond is necessary in the public interest.

(b) Failure to comply with any temporary or permanent injunction granted under this subsection is contempt of court as provided in chapter 7.21 RCW. The court may impose a penalty of up to ten thousand dollars for an employee organization or the employer, for each day during which the failure to comply continues. The sanctions for an employee found to be in contempt shall be as provided in chapter 7.21 RCW. An individual or an employee organization that makes an active good faith effort to comply fully with the injunction shall not be deemed to be in contempt.

(4) Nothing in this section prevents new or renewed bargaining and agreement within the scope of bargaining, as defined by this chapter, at any time. However, the parties may not agree to a provision regarding suspension or modification of any court-ordered penalty provided in this section and any such agreement is void.

(5) Each of the remedies and penalties provided by this section is separate and several and is in addition to any other legal or equitable remedy or penalty.

(6) In addition to the remedies and penalties provided by this section, the successful litigant is entitled to recover costs and reasonable attorneys' fees incurred in the litigation.

Sec. 2. RCW 41.06.150 and 1999 c 297 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:

The board shall adopt rules, consistent with the purposes and provisions of this chapter, as now or hereafter amended, and with the best standards of personnel administration, regarding the basis and procedures to be followed for:

(1) The reduction, dismissal, suspension, or demotion of an employee;

(2) Certification of names for vacancies, including departmental promotions, with the number of names equal to six more names than there are vacancies to be filled, such names representing applicants rated highest on eligibility lists: PROVIDED, That when other applicants have scores equal to the lowest score among the names certified, their names shall also be certified;

(3) Examinations for all positions in the competitive and noncompetitive service;

(4) Appointments;

(5) Training and career development;

(6) Probationary periods of six to twelve months and rejections of probationary employees, depending on the job requirements of the class, except that entry level state park rangers shall serve a probationary period of twelve months;

(7) Transfers;

(8) Sick leaves and vacations;

(9) Hours of work;

(10) Layoffs when necessary and subsequent reemployment, both according to seniority;

(11) Determination of appropriate bargaining units within any agency: PROVIDED, That in making such determination the board shall consider the duties, skills, and working conditions of the employees, the history of collective bargaining by the employees and their bargaining representatives, the extent of organization among the employees, and the desires of the employees;

(12) Certification and decertification of exclusive bargaining representatives: PROVIDED, That after certification of an exclusive bargaining representative and upon the representative's request, the director shall hold an election among employees in a bargaining unit to determine by a majority whether to require as a condition of employment membership in the certified exclusive bargaining representative on or after the thirtieth day following the beginning of employment or the date of such election, whichever is the later, and the failure of an employee to comply with such a condition of employment constitutes cause for dismissal: PROVIDED FURTHER, That no more often than once in each twelve-month period after expiration of twelve months following the date of the original election in a bargaining unit and upon petition of thirty percent of the members of a bargaining unit the director shall hold an election to determine whether a majority wish to rescind such condition of employment: PROVIDED FURTHER, That for purposes of this clause, membership in the certified exclusive bargaining representative is satisfied by the payment of monthly or other periodic dues and does not require payment of initiation, reinstatement, or any other fees or fines and includes full and complete membership rights: AND PROVIDED FURTHER, That in order to safeguard the right of nonassociation of public employees, based on bona fide religious tenets or teachings of a church or religious body of which such public employee is a member, such public employee shall pay to the union, for purposes within the program of the union as designated by such employee that would be in harmony with his or her individual conscience, an amount of money equivalent to regular union dues minus any included monthly premiums for union-sponsored insurance programs, and such employee shall not be a member of the union but is entitled to all the representation rights of a union member;

(13) Agreements between agencies and certified exclusive bargaining representatives providing for grievance procedures and collective negotiations on all personnel matters over which the appointing authority of the appropriate bargaining unit of such agency may lawfully exercise discretion;

(14) Written agreements may contain provisions for payroll deductions of employee organization dues upon authorization by the employee member and for the cancellation of such payroll deduction by the filing of a proper prior notice by the employee with the appointing authority and the employee organization((~~: PROVIDED, That nothing contained herein permits or grants to any employee the right to strike or refuse to perform his or her official duties~~));

(15) Adoption and revision of a comprehensive classification plan for all positions in the classified service, based on investigation and analysis of the duties and responsibilities of each such position.

(a) The board shall not adopt job classification revisions or class studies unless implementation of the proposed revision or study will result in net cost savings, increased efficiencies, or improved management of personnel or services, and the proposed revision or study has been approved by the director of financial management in accordance with chapter 43.88 RCW.

(b) Beginning July 1, 1995, through June 30, 1997, in addition to the requirements of (a) of this subsection:

(i) The board may approve the implementation of salary increases resulting from adjustments to the classification plan during the 1995-97 fiscal biennium only if:

(A) The implementation will not result in additional net costs and the proposed implementation has been approved by the director of financial management in accordance with chapter 43.88 RCW;

(B) The implementation will take effect on July 1, 1996, and the total net cost of all such actions approved by the board for implementation during the 1995-97 fiscal biennium does not exceed the amounts specified by the legislature specifically for this purpose; or

(C) The implementation is a result of emergent conditions. Emergent conditions are defined as emergency situations requiring the establishment of positions necessary for the preservation of the public health, safety, or general welfare, which do not exceed $250,000 of the moneys identified in section 718(2), chapter 18, Laws of 1995 2nd sp. sess.

(ii) The board shall approve only those salary increases resulting from adjustments to the classification plan if they are due to documented recruitment and retention difficulties, salary compression or inversion, increased duties and responsibilities, or inequities. For these purposes, inequities are defined as similar work assigned to different job classes with a salary disparity greater than 7.5 percent.

(iii) Adjustments made to the higher education hospital special pay plan are exempt from (b)(i) through (ii) of this subsection.

(c) Reclassifications, class studies, and salary adjustments to be implemented during the 1997-99 and subsequent fiscal biennia are governed by (a) of this subsection and RCW 41.06.152;

(16) Allocation and reallocation of positions within the classification plan;

(17) Adoption and revision of a state salary schedule to reflect the prevailing rates in Washington state private industries and other governmental units but the rates in the salary schedules or plans shall be increased if necessary to attain comparable worth under an implementation plan under RCW 41.06.155 and that, for institutions of higher education and related boards, shall be competitive for positions of a similar nature in the state or the locality in which an institution of higher education or related board is located, such adoption and revision subject to approval by the director of financial management in accordance with the provisions of chapter 43.88 RCW;

(18) Increment increases within the series of steps for each pay grade based on length of service for all employees whose standards of performance are such as to permit them to retain job status in the classified service;

(19) Optional lump sum relocation compensation approved by the agency director, whenever it is reasonably necessary that a person make a domiciliary move in accepting a transfer or other employment with the state. An agency must provide lump sum compensation within existing resources. If the person receiving the relocation payment terminates or causes termination with the state, for reasons other than layoff, disability separation, or other good cause as determined by an agency director, within one year of the date of the employment, the state is entitled to reimbursement of the lump sum compensation from the person;

(20) Providing for veteran's preference as required by existing statutes, with recognition of preference in regard to layoffs and subsequent reemployment for veterans and their surviving spouses by giving such eligible veterans and their surviving spouses additional credit in computing their seniority by adding to their unbroken state service, as defined by the board, the veteran's service in the military not to exceed five years. For the purposes of this section, "veteran" means any person who has one or more years of active military service in any branch of the armed forces of the United States or who has less than one year's service and is discharged with a disability incurred in the line of duty or is discharged at the convenience of the government and who, upon termination of such service has received an honorable discharge, a discharge for physical reasons with an honorable record, or a release from active military service with evidence of service other than that for which an undesirable, bad conduct, or dishonorable discharge shall be given: PROVIDED, HOWEVER, That the surviving spouse of a veteran is entitled to the benefits of this section regardless of the veteran's length of active military service: PROVIDED FURTHER, That for the purposes of this section "veteran" does not include any person who has voluntarily retired with twenty or more years of active military service and whose military retirement pay is in excess of five hundred dollars per month;

(21) Permitting agency heads to delegate the authority to appoint, reduce, dismiss, suspend, or demote employees within their agencies if such agency heads do not have specific statutory authority to so delegate: PROVIDED, That the board may not authorize such delegation to any position lower than the head of a major subdivision of the agency;

(22) Assuring persons who are or have been employed in classified positions before July 1, 1993, will be eligible for employment, reemployment, transfer, and promotion in respect to classified positions covered by this chapter;

(23) Affirmative action in appointment, promotion, transfer, recruitment, training, and career development; development and implementation of affirmative action goals and timetables; and monitoring of progress against those goals and timetables.

The board shall consult with the human rights commission in the development of rules pertaining to affirmative action. The department of personnel shall transmit a report annually to the human rights commission which states the progress each state agency has made in meeting affirmative action goals and timetables.

Sec. 3. RCW 41.06.020 and 1993 c 281 s 19 are each amended to read as follows:

Unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, the words used in this chapter have the meaning given in this section.

(1) "Agency" means an office, department, board, commission, or other separate unit or division, however designated, of the state government and all personnel thereof; it includes any unit of state government established by law, the executive officer or members of which are either elected or appointed, upon which the statutes confer powers and impose duties in connection with operations of either a governmental or proprietary nature.

(2) "Board" means the Washington personnel resources board established under the provisions of RCW 41.06.110, except that this definition does not apply to the words "board" or "boards" when used in RCW 41.06.070.

(3) "Classified service" means all positions in the state service subject to the provisions of this chapter.

(4) "Competitive service" means all positions in the classified service for which a competitive examination is required as a condition precedent to appointment.

(5) "Comparable worth" means the provision of similar salaries for positions that require or impose similar responsibilities, judgments, knowledge, skills, and working conditions.

(6) "Noncompetitive service" means all positions in the classified service for which a competitive examination is not required.

(7) "Department" means an agency of government that has as its governing officer a person, or combination of persons such as a commission, board, or council, by law empowered to operate the agency responsible either to (a) no other public officer or (b) the governor.

(8) "Career development" means the progressive development of employee capabilities to facilitate productivity, job satisfaction, and upward mobility through work assignments as well as education and training that are both state-sponsored and are achieved by individual employee efforts, all of which shall be consistent with the needs and obligations of the state and its agencies.

(9) "Training" means activities designed to develop job-related knowledge and skills of employees.

(10) "Director" means the director of personnel appointed under the provisions of RCW 41.06.130.

(11) "Affirmative action" means a procedure by which racial minorities, women, persons in the protected age category, persons with disabilities, Vietnam-era veterans, and disabled veterans are provided with increased employment opportunities. It shall not mean any sort of quota system.

(12) "Institutions of higher education" means the University of Washington, Washington State University, Central Washington University, Eastern Washington University, Western Washington University, The Evergreen State College, and the various state community colleges.

(13) "Related boards" means the state board for community and technical colleges; and such other boards, councils, and commissions related to higher education as may be established.

(14) "Labor dispute" means a controversy concerning terms or conditions of employment, or concerning the association or representation of persons in negotiating, fixing, maintaining, changing, or seeking to arrange terms or conditions of their public employment, regardless of whether the disputants in the controversy stand in the proximate relation of employer and employee.

(15) "Lockout" means the refusal of the employer, in connection with a labor dispute, to permit its employees to commence or continue the full performance of their normal duties and services as employees.

(16) "Strike" means any concerted action by employees or employee organizations, in connection with a labor dispute, to suspend, curtail, interrupt, withhold, or otherwise fail or refuse to perform fully their normal duties or services as employees.