Brief Description: Modifying provisions relating to reclassifications, class studies, and salary adjustments.

Sponsors: By Representative Green; by request of Department of Personnel.

House Committee on State Government & Tribal Affairs
Senate Committee on Labor, Commerce, Research & Development

Background:

The Personnel System Reform Act (Act) was enacted in 2002. The Act restructured the state civil service system, created a new option for the state to competitively contract work done by state employees, and expanded collective bargaining to include wages and benefits. As part of the restructuring of the state civil service system, the Act transferred rule-making authority from the Washington Personnel Resources Board (Resources Board) to the Department of Personnel, transferred appeal authority from the Personnel Appeals Board (Appeals Board) to the Resources Board, and abolished the Appeals Board.

The Director of Personnel (Director) is required to adopt and revise a comprehensive classification plan for all positions in the classified service. When an agency requests revisions, class studies, or salary adjustments, the Director may only adopt the revisions that are due to documented:

• recruitment and retention difficulties;
• salary compression or inversion;
• increased duties and responsibilities; or
• inequities, defined as similar work assigned to different job classes with a salary disparity greater than 7.5 percent.

The Office of Financial Management (OFM) must review the agency's fiscal impact statement and concur that the cost of the revisions can be absorbed by the agency.

The Resources Board may also submit a prioritized list of reclassifications, class studies, and salary adjustments to the Governor's Office and the fiscal committees of the Legislature. The Legislature may establish a level of funding to be applied by the Resources Board to the prioritized list.

Summary:

The Director must adopt only those job classification revisions, class studies, and salary adjustments that, as defined by the Director, are due to:

• documented recruitment or retention difficulties;
• salary compression or inversion;
• classification plan maintenance;
• higher level duties and responsibilities; or
• inequities.

The OFM must also have reviewed the affected agency's fiscal impact statement and concurred that the affected agency can absorb the cost of the reclassification, class study, or salary adjustment.

Provisions are repealed that deal with the additional procedures the Resources Board follows for making a prioritized list of classification revisions, class studies, or salary adjustments.

Votes on Final Passage:

House   66   28
Senate   43   4

Effective: July 22, 2007