S-3683               _______________________________________________

                                                   SENATE BILL NO. 6717

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                               51st Legislature                              1990 Regular Session

By Senators Johnson and Vognild

Read first time 1/24/90 and referred to Committee on  Ways & Means.

AN ACT Relating to uniformed personnel; and amending RCW 41.56.030.

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

        Sec. 1.  Section 3, chapter 108, Laws of 1967 ex. sess. as last amended by section 2, chapter 275, Laws of 1989 and RCW 41.56.030 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 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, of any city or county.