BILL REQ. #:  H-0591.1 

Read first time 02/04/2003.   Referred to Committee on State Government.

     AN ACT Relating to bereavement leave for state employees; amending RCW 41.06.133; reenacting and amending RCW 41.06.150; providing an effective date; and providing an expiration date.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 41.06.150 and 2002 c 371 s 906, 2002 c 354 s 202, and 2002 c 110 s 1 are each reenacted and amended to read as follows:
     The board shall adopt rules, consistent with the purposes and provisions of this chapter, as now or hereafter amended, and with the best standards of personnel administration, regarding the basis and procedures to be followed for:
     (1) The reduction, dismissal, suspension, or demotion of an employee;
     (2) Certification of names for vacancies, including departmental promotions, with the number of names equal to six more names than there are vacancies to be filled, such names representing applicants rated highest on eligibility lists: PROVIDED, That when other applicants have scores equal to the lowest score among the names certified, their names shall also be certified;
     (3) Examinations for all positions in the competitive and noncompetitive service;
     (4) Appointments;
     (5) Training and career development;
     (6) Probationary periods of six to twelve months and rejections of probationary employees, depending on the job requirements of the class, except as follows:
     (a) Entry level state park rangers shall serve a probationary period of twelve months;
     (b) The probationary period of campus police officer appointees who are required to attend the Washington state criminal justice training commission basic law enforcement academy shall extend from the date of appointment until twelve months from the date of successful completion of the basic law enforcement academy, or twelve months from the date of appointment if academy training is not required. The board shall adopt rules to ensure that employees promoting to campus police officer who are required to attend the Washington state criminal justice training commission basic law enforcement academy shall have the trial service period extend from the date of appointment until twelve months from the date of successful completion of the basic law enforcement academy, or twelve months from the date of appointment if academy training is not required;
     (7) Transfers;
     (8)(a) Sick leaves and vacations; and
     (b) Bereavement leave of three working days, not to be deducted from vacation or sick leave, for a death in the family;
     (9) Hours of work;
     (10) Layoffs when necessary and subsequent reemployment, both according to seniority;
     (11) Collective bargaining procedures:
     (a) After certification of an exclusive bargaining representative and upon the representative's request, the director shall hold an election among employees in a bargaining unit to determine by a majority whether to require as a condition of employment membership in the certified exclusive bargaining representative on or after the thirtieth day following the beginning of employment or the date of such election, whichever is the later, and the failure of an employee to comply with such a condition of employment constitutes cause for dismissal: PROVIDED FURTHER, That no more often than once in each twelve-month period after expiration of twelve months following the date of the original election in a bargaining unit and upon petition of thirty percent of the members of a bargaining unit the director shall hold an election to determine whether a majority wish to rescind such condition of employment: PROVIDED FURTHER, That for purposes of this clause, membership in the certified exclusive bargaining representative is satisfied by the payment of monthly or other periodic dues and does not require payment of initiation, reinstatement, or any other fees or fines and includes full and complete membership rights: AND PROVIDED FURTHER, That in order to safeguard the right of nonassociation of public employees, based on bona fide religious tenets or teachings of a church or religious body of which such public employee is a member, such public employee shall pay to the union, for purposes within the program of the union as designated by such employee that would be in harmony with his or her individual conscience, an amount of money equivalent to regular union dues minus any included monthly premiums for union-sponsored insurance programs, and such employee shall not be a member of the union but is entitled to all the representation rights of a union member;
     (b) Agreements between agencies and certified exclusive bargaining representatives providing for grievance procedures and collective negotiations on all personnel matters over which the appointing authority of the appropriate bargaining unit of such agency may lawfully exercise discretion;
     (c) Written agreements may contain provisions for payroll deductions of employee organization dues upon authorization by the employee member and for the cancellation of such payroll deduction by the filing of a proper prior notice by the employee with the appointing authority and the employee organization: PROVIDED, That nothing contained herein permits or grants to any employee the right to strike or refuse to perform his or her official duties;
     (d) A collective bargaining agreement entered into under this subsection before July 1, 2004, covering employees subject to RCW 41.80.001 and 41.80.010 through 41.80.130, that expires after July 1, 2004, shall remain in full force during its duration, or until superseded by a collective bargaining agreement entered into by the parties under RCW 41.80.001 and 41.80.010 through 41.80.130. However, an agreement entered into before July 1, 2004, may not be renewed or extended beyond July 1, 2005. This subsection (11) does not apply to collective bargaining negotiations or collective bargaining agreements entered into under RCW 41.80.001 and 41.80.010 through 41.80.130;
     (12) Adoption and revision of a comprehensive classification plan for all positions in the classified service, based on investigation and analysis of the duties and responsibilities of each such position.
     (a) The board shall not adopt job classification revisions or class studies unless implementation of the proposed revision or study will result in net cost savings, increased efficiencies, or improved management of personnel or services, and the proposed revision or study has been approved by the director of financial management in accordance with chapter 43.88 RCW.
     (b) Reclassifications, class studies, and salary adjustments are governed by (a) of this subsection and RCW 41.06.152;
     (13) Allocation and reallocation of positions within the classification plan;
     (14) Adoption and revision of a state salary schedule to reflect the prevailing rates in Washington state private industries and other governmental units but the rates in the salary schedules or plans shall be increased if necessary to attain comparable worth under an implementation plan under RCW 41.06.155 and that, for institutions of higher education and related boards, shall be competitive for positions of a similar nature in the state or the locality in which an institution of higher education or related board is located, such adoption and revision subject to approval by the director of financial management in accordance with the provisions of chapter 43.88 RCW;
     (15) Increment increases within the series of steps for each pay grade based on length of service for all employees whose standards of performance are such as to permit them to retain job status in the classified service;
     (16) Optional lump sum relocation compensation approved by the agency director, whenever it is reasonably necessary that a person make a domiciliary move in accepting a transfer or other employment with the state. An agency must provide lump sum compensation within existing resources. If the person receiving the relocation payment terminates or causes termination with the state, for reasons other than layoff, disability separation, or other good cause as determined by an agency director, within one year of the date of the employment, the state is entitled to reimbursement of the lump sum compensation from the person;
     (17) Providing for veteran's preference as required by existing statutes, with recognition of preference in regard to layoffs and subsequent reemployment for veterans and their surviving spouses by giving such eligible veterans and their surviving spouses additional credit in computing their seniority by adding to their unbroken state service, as defined by the board, the veteran's service in the military not to exceed five years. For the purposes of this section, "veteran" means any person who has one or more years of active military service in any branch of the armed forces of the United States or who has less than one year's service and is discharged with a disability incurred in the line of duty or is discharged at the convenience of the government and who, upon termination of such service has received an honorable discharge, a discharge for physical reasons with an honorable record, or a release from active military service with evidence of service other than that for which an undesirable, bad conduct, or dishonorable discharge shall be given: PROVIDED, HOWEVER, That the surviving spouse of a veteran is entitled to the benefits of this section regardless of the veteran's length of active military service: PROVIDED FURTHER, That for the purposes of this section "veteran" does not include any person who has voluntarily retired with twenty or more years of active military service and whose military retirement pay is in excess of five hundred dollars per month;
     (18) Permitting agency heads to delegate the authority to appoint, reduce, dismiss, suspend, or demote employees within their agencies if such agency heads do not have specific statutory authority to so delegate: PROVIDED, That the board may not authorize such delegation to any position lower than the head of a major subdivision of the agency;
     (19) Assuring persons who are or have been employed in classified positions before July 1, 1993, will be eligible for employment, reemployment, transfer, and promotion in respect to classified positions covered by this chapter;
     (20) Affirmative action in appointment, promotion, transfer, recruitment, training, and career development; development and implementation of affirmative action goals and timetables; and monitoring of progress against those goals and timetables.
     The board shall consult with the human rights commission in the development of rules pertaining to affirmative action. The department of personnel shall transmit a report annually to the human rights commission which states the progress each state agency has made in meeting affirmative action goals and timetables.
     Notwithstanding this section and rules of the board adopted under this section, agencies may place employees on temporary unpaid leave during the 2001-2003 fiscal biennium for the purpose of implementing appropriations reductions enacted in the 2002 supplemental appropriations act. Mandatory unpaid leave must be approved by the agency director, and must be, to the greatest extent possible, mutually agreeable to the employee and employer. Employees taking mandatory temporary unpaid leave will not lose seniority, leave accrual, or health insurance benefits.

Sec. 2   RCW 41.06.133 and 2002 c 354 s 204 are each amended to read as follows:
     The director shall adopt rules, consistent with the purposes and provisions of this chapter and with the best standards of personnel administration, regarding the basis and procedures to be followed for:
     (1) The reduction, dismissal, suspension, or demotion of an employee;
     (2) Training and career development;
     (3) Probationary periods of six to twelve months and rejections of probationary employees, depending on the job requirements of the class, except that entry level state park rangers shall serve a probationary period of twelve months;
     (4) Transfers;
     (5) Promotional preferences;
     (6)(a) Sick leaves and vacations; and
     (b) Bereavement leave of three working days, not to be deducted from vacation or sick leave, for a death in the family;
     (7) Hours of work;
     (8) Layoffs when necessary and subsequent reemployment, except for the financial basis for layoffs;
     (9) The number of names to be certified for vacancies;
     (10) Adoption and revision of a state salary schedule to reflect the prevailing rates in Washington state private industries and other governmental units. The rates in the salary schedules or plans shall be increased if necessary to attain comparable worth under an implementation plan under RCW 41.06.155 and, for institutions of higher education and related boards, shall be competitive for positions of a similar nature in the state or the locality in which an institution of higher education or related board is located. Such adoption and revision is subject to approval by the director of financial management in accordance with chapter 43.88 RCW;
     (11) Increment increases within the series of steps for each pay grade based on length of service for all employees whose standards of performance are such as to permit them to retain job status in the classified service;
     (12) Optional lump sum relocation compensation approved by the agency director, whenever it is reasonably necessary that a person make a domiciliary move in accepting a transfer or other employment with the state. An agency must provide lump sum compensation within existing resources. If the person receiving the relocation payment terminates or causes termination with the state, for reasons other than layoff, disability separation, or other good cause as determined by an agency director, within one year of the date of the employment, the state is entitled to reimbursement of the lump sum compensation from the person;
     (13) Providing for veteran's preference as required by existing statutes, with recognition of preference in regard to layoffs and subsequent reemployment for veterans and their surviving spouses by giving such eligible veterans and their surviving spouses additional credit in computing their seniority by adding to their unbroken state service, as defined by the director, the veteran's service in the military not to exceed five years. For the purposes of this section, "veteran" means any person who has one or more years of active military service in any branch of the armed forces of the United States or who has less than one year's service and is discharged with a disability incurred in the line of duty or is discharged at the convenience of the government and who, upon termination of such service, has received an honorable discharge, a discharge for physical reasons with an honorable record, or a release from active military service with evidence of service other than that for which an undesirable, bad conduct, or dishonorable discharge shall be given. However, the surviving spouse of a veteran is entitled to the benefits of this section regardless of the veteran's length of active military service. For the purposes of this section, "veteran" does not include any person who has voluntarily retired with twenty or more years of active military service and whose military retirement pay is in excess of five hundred dollars per month.
     Rules adopted under this section by the director shall provide for local administration and management by the institutions of higher education and related boards, subject to periodic audit and review by the director.
     Rules adopted by the director under this section may be superseded by the provisions of a collective bargaining agreement negotiated under RCW 41.80.001 and 41.80.010 through 41.80.130. The supersession of such rules shall only affect employees in the respective collective bargaining units.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   Section 1 of this act expires July 1, 2004.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 4   Section 2 of this act takes effect July 1, 2004.