Background: State Civil Service. State civil service law governs the appointment, promotion, transfer, layoff, removal, discipline, and welfare of most state agency employees. State civil service law applies to most state agency employees, unless expressly excluded. For example, civil service law does not apply to the legislative branch, the judiciary, academic personnel, state patrol officers, the chief executive officers of each agency, and certain other management staff. Part-time employees, as defined by the Washington Personnel Resources Board, are also excluded from state civil service.

For part-time higher education positions, a person who is employed to work 1,050 hours or less in 12 consecutive months is exempt from civil service. However, a higher education employee who works more than 350 hours in a 12-month period may be included in the appropriate bargaining unit for collective bargaining purposes.

Additionally, certain part-time professional consultants of higher education employers are exempt from civil service.

For general government employees, the following types of employees are exempt from civil service:

part-time local health officers;
persons employed on a part-time, or temporary basis for medical, nursing, or other professional service who are not engaged in the performance of administrative duties;
part-time or temporary employees who are enrolled as full-time students whose employment is largely to provide a training opportunity;
patient and resident help in general government residential facilities;
inmate help in correctional facilities; and
skilled and unskilled labor employed temporarily on construction and maintenance projects or agricultural production.

Personnel System Reform Act (PSRA). The PSRA provides for collective bargaining of wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment between the Governor and classified employees of state agencies and institutions of higher education. Employees covered by the PSRA include all state civil service employees except:

employees covered by the Public Employees' Collective Bargaining Act;
confidential employees;
members of the Washington Management Service;
internal auditors in any agency; and
any employee of the Public Employment Relations Commission, the Office of Financial Management, and the Office of Risk Management.