BILL REQ. #:  H-3421.2 

Prefiled 12/21/2005. Read first time 01/09/2006.   Referred to Committee on Commerce & Labor.

     AN ACT Relating to improving access to and the stability of quality child care through providing collective bargaining and other representation rights for family child care providers and licensees; amending RCW 41.56.030, 41.56.113, 41.04.810, and 43.01.047; adding a new section to chapter 41.56 RCW; and creating new sections.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The purpose of this act is to improve access to and the quality of family child care services. Thousands of Washington families depend upon family child care providers to care for their children while the parents are at work or school. Early educational opportunities improve the chances of academic and career success for the many young children cared for by these providers. To ensure that children receive the highest quality services from these providers, it is necessary to achieve and maintain a stable, well-trained work force. To accomplish, these goals, it is the policy of this state to encourage family child care providers and licensees to have a voice in the development of child care assistance and other programs through collective bargaining and other joint activities.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 41.56 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) In addition to the entities listed in RCW 41.56.020, this chapter applies to the governor with respect to family child care providers. Solely for the purposes of collective bargaining and as expressly limited under subsections (2) and (3) of this section, the governor is the public employer of family child care providers who, solely for the purposes of collective bargaining, are public employees. The public employer shall be represented for bargaining purposes by the governor or the governor's designee appointed under chapter 41.80 RCW.
     (2) This chapter governs the collective bargaining relationship between the governor and family child care providers, except as follows:
     (a) A statewide unit of all family child care providers is the only unit appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining under RCW 41.56.060.
     (b) A statewide unit of all family child care licensees is appropriate for purposes other than collective bargaining and may engage through a representative in negotiated rule making under RCW 34.05.310.
     (c) As of the effective date of this act, the exclusive bargaining representative of family child care providers in the unit specified in (a) of this subsection and the representative of family child care licensees in the unit specified in (b) of this subsection shall be the representatives selected as the majority representatives in elections held pursuant to the directive of the governor to the secretary of the department of social and health services, dated September 16, 2005. If family child care providers or family child care licensees seek to select different representatives thereafter, the procedures specified in RCW 41.56.040 through 41.56.080 apply.
     (d) In addition to the matters subject to collective bargaining in RCW 41.56.030(4), child care subsidies shall be subject to collective bargaining.
     (e) The mediation and interest arbitration provisions of RCW 41.56.430 through 41.56.470 and 41.56.480 apply, except that:
     (i) With respect to commencement of negotiations between the governor and the exclusive bargaining representative of family child care providers, negotiations shall be commenced initially by February 1, 2007, and thereafter, by February 1 of any year prior to the year in which an existing collective bargaining agreement expires;
     (ii) In addition to the factors to be taken into consideration by an interest arbitration panel under RCW 41.56.465, the panel shall consider the financial ability of the state to pay for the compensation, fringe benefit, and child care subsidy provisions of a collective bargaining agreement; and
     (iii) The decision of the arbitration panel is not binding on the legislature and, if the legislature does not approve the request for funds necessary to implement the compensation, fringe benefit, and child care subsidy provisions of the arbitrated collective bargaining agreement, is not binding on the state.
     (f) Family child care providers do not have the right to strike.
     (3) Family child care providers who are public employees solely for the purposes of collective bargaining under subsection (1) of this section are not, for that reason, employees of the state for any purpose. This section applies only to the governance of the collective bargaining relationship between the employer and family child care providers as provided in subsections (1) and (2) of this section.
     (4) This section does not modify:
     (a) The parents' or legal guardians' right to choose and terminate the services of any family child care provider that provides care for their child or children; and
     (b) The legislature's right to make programmatic modifications to the delivery of state services through child care subsidy programs, including standards of eligibility of parents, legal guardians, and family child care providers participating in child care subsidy programs, and the nature of services provided. The governor shall not enter into, extend, or renew any agreement under this section that does not expressly reserve the legislative rights described in this subsection (4)(b).
     (5) Upon meeting the requirements of subsection (6) of this section, the governor must submit, as a part of the proposed biennial or supplemental operating budget submitted to the legislature under RCW 43.88.030, a request for funds necessary to implement the compensation, fringe benefit, and child care subsidy provisions of a collective bargaining agreement entered into under this section or for legislation necessary to implement such agreement.
     (6) A request for funds necessary to implement the compensation, fringe benefit, and child care subsidy provisions of a collective bargaining agreement entered into under this section shall not be submitted by the governor to the legislature unless such request:
     (a) Has been submitted to the director of financial management prior to the legislative session at which the request is to be considered; and
     (b) Has been certified by the director of financial management as being feasible financially for the state or reflects the binding decision of an arbitration panel reached under this section.
     (7) The legislature must approve or reject the submission of the request for funds as a whole. If the legislature rejects or fails to act on the submission by April 1 of an odd-numbered year or March 1 of an even-numbered year, any such agreement will be reopened solely for the purpose of renegotiating the funds necessary to implement the agreement and resubmitted to the legislature before the end of the session in which the rejection or failure to act occurs.
     (8) The governor shall periodically consult with the joint committee on employment relations established by RCW 41.80.010 regarding appropriations necessary to implement the compensation, fringe benefit, and child care subsidy provisions of any collective bargaining agreement and, upon completion of negotiations, advise the committee on the elements of the agreement and on any legislation necessary to implement such agreement.
     (9) After the expiration date of any collective bargaining agreement entered into under this section, all of the terms and conditions specified in any such agreement remain in effect until the effective date of a subsequent agreement, not to exceed one year from the expiration date stated in the agreement, except as provided in subsection (4)(b) of this section.
     (10) If, after the compensation and benefit provisions of an agreement are approved by the legislature, a significant revenue shortfall occurs resulting in reduced appropriations, as declared by proclamation of the governor or by resolution of the legislature, both parties shall immediately enter into collective bargaining for a mutually agreed upon modification of the agreement.

Sec. 3   RCW 41.56.030 and 2004 c 3 s 6 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, or any subdivision of such public body. For the purposes of this section, the public employer of district court or superior 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 or superior 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 as a member of a multimember board, commission, or committee, whether appointed 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 (i) the executive head or body of the applicable bargaining unit, or (ii) any person elected by popular vote, or (iii) any person appointed to office pursuant to statute, ordinance or resolution for a specified term of office as a member of a multimember board, commission, or committee, whether appointed by the executive head or body of the public employer, or (d) who is a court commissioner or a court magistrate of superior court, district court, or a department of a district court organized under chapter 3.46 RCW, or (e) who is a personal assistant to a district court judge, superior court judge, or court commissioner((, or (f) excluded from a bargaining unit under RCW 41.56.201(2)(a))). For the purpose of (e) 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.
     (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 employed by the governing body of any city or town with a population of two thousand five hundred or more and law enforcement officers employed by the governing body of any county with a population of ten thousand or more; (b) correctional employees who are uniformed and nonuniformed, commissioned and noncommissioned security personnel employed in a jail as defined in RCW 70.48.020(5), by a county with a population of seventy thousand or more, and who are trained for and charged with the responsibility of controlling and maintaining custody of inmates in the jail and safeguarding inmates from other inmates; (c) general authority Washington peace officers as defined in RCW 10.93.020 employed by a port district in a county with a population of one million or more; (d) security forces established under RCW 43.52.520; (e) fire fighters as that term is defined in RCW 41.26.030; (f) employees of a port district in a county with a population of one million or more whose duties include crash fire rescue or other fire fighting duties; (g) employees of fire departments of public employers who dispatch exclusively either fire or emergency medical services, or both; or (h) employees in the several classes of advanced life support technicians, as defined in RCW 18.71.200, who are employed by a public employer.
     (8) "Institution 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.
     (9) "Home care quality authority" means the authority under chapter 74.39A RCW.
     (10) "Individual provider" means an individual provider as defined in RCW 74.39A.240(4) who, solely for the purposes of collective bargaining, is a public employee as provided in RCW 74.39A.270.
     (11) "Child care subsidy" means a payment from the state through a subsidy program.
     (12) "Family child care licensee" means a person who: (a) Provides regularly scheduled care for a child or children in the home of the provider or in the home of the child or children for periods of less than twenty-four hours or, if necessary due to the nature of the parent's work, for periods equal to or greater than twenty-four hours; (b) does not receive child care subsidies; and (c) is licensed by the state pursuant to RCW 74.15.030.
     (13) "Family child care provider" means a person who: (a) Provides regularly scheduled care for a child or children in the home of the provider or in the home of the child or children for periods of less than twenty-four hours or, if necessary due to the nature of the parent's work, for periods equal to or greater than twenty-four hours; (b) receives child care subsidies; and (c) may or may not be licensed by the state pursuant to RCW 74.15.030.
     (14) "Subsidy program" means a child care subsidy program established pursuant to RCW 74.12.340 or any successor program.

Sec. 4   RCW 41.56.113 and 2004 c 3 s 7 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) Upon the written authorization of an individual provider or a family child care provider within the bargaining unit and after the certification or recognition of the bargaining unit's exclusive bargaining representative, the state as payor, but not as the employer, shall, subject to subsection (3) of this section, deduct from the payments to an individual provider or a family child care provider the monthly amount of dues as certified by the secretary of the exclusive bargaining representative and shall transmit the same to the treasurer of the exclusive bargaining representative.
     (2) If the governor and the exclusive bargaining representative of a bargaining unit of individual providers or family child care providers enter into a collective bargaining agreement that:
     (a) Includes a union security provision authorized in RCW 41.56.122, the state as payor, but not as the employer, shall, subject to subsection (3) of this section, enforce the agreement by deducting from the payments to bargaining unit members the dues required for membership in the exclusive bargaining representative, or, for nonmembers thereof, a fee equivalent to the dues; or
     (b) Includes requirements for deductions of payments other than the deduction under (a) of this subsection, the state, as payor, but not as the employer, shall, subject to subsection (3) of this section, make such deductions upon written authorization of the individual provider or the family child care provider.
     (3)(a) The initial additional costs to the state in making deductions from the payments to individual providers or family child care providers under this section shall be negotiated, agreed upon in advance, and reimbursed to the state by the exclusive bargaining representative.
     (b) The allocation of ongoing additional costs to the state in making deductions from the payments to individual providers or family child care providers under this section shall be an appropriate subject of collective bargaining between the exclusive bargaining representative and the governor unless prohibited by another statute. If no collective bargaining agreement containing a provision allocating the ongoing additional cost is entered into between the exclusive bargaining representative and the governor, or if the legislature does not approve funding for the collective bargaining agreement as provided in RCW 74.39A.300 or section 2 of this act, as applicable, the ongoing additional costs to the state in making deductions from the payments to individual providers or family child care providers under this section shall be negotiated, agreed upon in advance, and reimbursed to the state by the exclusive bargaining representative.

Sec. 5   RCW 41.04.810 and 2004 c 3 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:
     Individual providers, as defined in RCW 74.39A.240, and family child care providers, as defined in RCW 41.56.030, are not employees of the state or any of its political subdivisions and are specifically and entirely excluded from all provisions of this title, except as provided in RCW 74.39A.270 and section 2 of this act.

Sec. 6   RCW 43.01.047 and 2004 c 3 s 4 are each amended to read as follows:
     RCW 43.01.040 through 43.01.044 do not apply to individual providers under RCW 74.39A.220 through 74.39A.300 or to family child care providers under section 2 of this act.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 7   If any part of this act is found to be in conflict with federal requirements that are a prescribed condition to the allocation of federal funds to the state, the conflicting part of this act is inoperative solely to the extent of the conflict and with respect to the agencies directly affected, and this finding does not affect the operation of the remainder of this act in its application to the agencies concerned. Rules adopted under this act must meet federal requirements that are a necessary condition to the receipt of federal funds by the state.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 8   This act may be known and cited as the access to quality family child care act.