AN
ACT Relating to clarifying who are appointed personnel for the purpose of
public employees' collective bargaining; and amending RCW 41.56.030 and
36.27.040.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE
LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec.
1. RCW
41.56.030 and 1999 c 217 s 2 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. For the purpose of (((d))) (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.
Sec.
2. RCW
36.27.040 and 1975 1st ex.s. c 19 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:
The
prosecuting attorney may appoint one or more deputies who shall have the same
power in all respects as their principal. Each appointment shall be in
writing, signed by the prosecuting attorney, and filed in the county auditor's
office. Each deputy thus appointed shall have the same qualifications required
of the prosecuting attorney, except that such deputy need not be a resident of
the county in which he serves. The prosecuting attorney may appoint one or
more special deputy prosecuting attorneys upon a contract or fee basis whose
authority shall be limited to the purposes stated in the writing signed by the
prosecuting attorney and filed in the county auditor's office. Such special
deputy prosecuting attorney shall be admitted to practice as an attorney before
the courts of this state but need not be a resident of the county in which he
serves and shall not be under the legal disabilities attendant upon prosecuting
attorneys or their deputies except to avoid any conflict of interest with the
purpose for which he has been engaged by the prosecuting attorney. The
prosecuting attorney shall be responsible for the acts of his deputies and may
revoke appointments at will.
Two
or more prosecuting attorneys may agree that one or more deputies for any one
of them may serve temporarily as deputy for any other of them on terms
respecting compensation which are acceptable to said prosecuting attorneys.
Any such deputy thus serving shall have the same power in all respects as if he
were serving permanently.
The
provisions of chapter 39.34 RCW shall not apply to such agreements.
The provisions of RCW 41.56.030(2) shall not be interpreted to
permit a prosecuting attorney to alter the at-will relationship established
between the prosecuting attorney and his or her appointed deputies by this
section for a period of time exceeding his or her term of office. Neither
shall the provisions of RCW 41.56.030(2) require a prosecuting attorney to
alter the at-will relationship established by this section.
