BILL REQ. #:  H-2597.1 

READ FIRST TIME 02/28/07.   

     AN ACT Relating to making the governor the public employer of adult family home providers; amending RCW 41.56.030, 41.56.113, 41.04.810, 43.01.047, and 70.128.040; reenacting and amending RCW 70.128.010; adding a new section to chapter 41.56 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 70.128 RCW; and creating new sections.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   A new section is added to chapter 41.56 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) In addition to the entities listed in RCW 41.56.020, this chapter applies to the governor with respect to adult family home providers. Solely for the purposes of collective bargaining and as expressly limited under subsections (2) and (3) of this section, the governor is the public employer of adult family home providers who, solely for the purposes of collective bargaining, are public employees. The public employer shall be represented for bargaining purposes by the governor or the governor's designee.
     (2) There shall be collective bargaining, as defined in RCW 41.56.030, between the governor and adult family home providers, except as follows:
     (a) A statewide unit of all adult family home providers is the only unit appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining under RCW 41.56.060.
     (b) The exclusive bargaining representative of adult family home providers in the unit specified in (a) of this subsection shall be the organization certified by the commission as the sole representative after the commission conducts a cross-check comparing bargaining authorization cards against the department of social and health services' records and finds that majority support for the organization exists.
     (i) The commission shall grant a prospective representative intervener status if that organization submits authorization cards from a majority of adult family home providers in the unit within five days of the initial request for recognition.
     (ii) In the event that two or more prospective representatives have valid authorization cards from the same individual within the unit, the commission shall add the cards to both organizations' total number of authorization cards.
     (iii) In the event that the commission finds that there is majority support for more than one organization, the commission shall certify the organization with the greatest number of authorization cards as the exclusive bargaining representative. If the commission finds that there is majority support for more than one organization and that there is a tie, the commission shall hold a run-off election to determine the organization to be certified as the exclusive bargaining representative.
     (c) Notwithstanding the definition of "collective bargaining" in RCW 41.56.030(4), the scope of collective bargaining for adult family home providers under this section shall be limited solely to: (i) Economic compensation, such as manner and rate of subsidy and reimbursement, including tiered reimbursements; (ii) health and welfare benefits; (iii) professional development and training; (iv) labor-management committees; (v) grievance procedures; and (vi) other economic matters. Retirement benefits shall not be subject to collective bargaining. 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.
     (d) In addition to the entities listed in the mediation and interest arbitration provisions of RCW 41.56.430 through 41.56.470 and 41.56.480, the provisions apply to the governor or the governor's designee and the exclusive bargaining representative of adult family home providers, except that:
     (i) In addition to the factors to be taken into consideration by an interest arbitration panel under RCW 41.56.465, the panel shall consider the financial ability of the state to pay for the compensation and benefit provisions of a collective bargaining agreement.
     (ii) The decision of the arbitration panel is not binding on the legislature and, if the legislature does not approve the request for funds necessary to implement the compensation and benefit provisions of the arbitrated collective bargaining agreement, the decision is not binding on the state.
     (e) Adult family home providers do not have the right to strike.
     (3) Adult family home providers who are public employees solely for the purposes of collective bargaining under subsection (1) of this section are not, for that reason, employees of the state for any other purpose. This section applies only to the governance of the collective bargaining relationship between the employer and adult family home providers as provided in subsections (1) and (2) of this section.
     (4) This section does not create or modify:
     (a) The department's authority to establish a plan of care for each consumer or its core responsibility to manage long-term care services under chapter 70.128 RCW, including determination of the level of care that each consumer is eligible to receive. However, at the request of the exclusive bargaining representative, the governor or the governor's designee appointed under chapter 41.80 RCW shall engage in collective bargaining, as defined in RCW 41.56.030(4), with the exclusive bargaining representative over how the department's core responsibility affects hours of work for adult family home providers. This subsection shall not be interpreted to require collective bargaining over an individual consumer's plan of care;
     (b) The department's obligation to comply with the federal medicaid statute and regulations and the terms of any community-based waiver granted by the federal department of health and human services and to ensure federal financial participation in the provision of the services;
     (c) The legislature's right to make programmatic modifications to the delivery of state services under chapter 70.128 RCW, including standards of eligibility of consumers and adult family home providers participating in the programs under chapter 70.128 RCW, and the nature of services provided. The governor shall not enter into, extend, or renew any agreement under this chapter that does not expressly reserve the legislative rights described in this subsection (4)(c);
     (d) The residents', parents', or legal guardians' right to choose and terminate the services of any licensed adult family home provider; and
     (e) RCW 43.43.832, 43.20A.205, or 74.15.130.
     (5) Upon meeting the requirements of subsection (6) of this section, the governor must submit, as a part of the proposed biennial or supplemental operating budget submitted to the legislature under RCW 43.88.030, a request for funds necessary to implement the compensation and benefit provisions of a collective bargaining agreement entered into under this section or for legislation necessary to implement the agreement.
     (6) A request for funds necessary to implement the compensation and benefit provisions of a collective bargaining agreement entered into under this section shall not be submitted by the governor to the legislature unless the request has been:
     (a) Submitted to the director of financial management by October 1st prior to the legislative session at which the requests are to be considered; and
     (b) Certified by the director of financial management as financially feasible for the state or reflective of a binding decision of an arbitration panel reached under subsection (2)(d) of this section.
     (7) The legislature must approve or reject the submission of the request for funds as a whole. If the legislature rejects or fails to act on the submission, any collective bargaining agreement must be reopened for the sole purpose of renegotiating the funds necessary to implement the agreement.
     (8) If, after the compensation and benefit provisions of an agreement are approved by the legislature, a significant revenue shortfall occurs resulting in reduced appropriations, as declared by proclamation of the governor or by resolution of the legislature, both parties shall immediately enter into collective bargaining for a mutually agreed upon modification of the agreement.
     (9) After the expiration date of any collective bargaining agreement entered into under this section, all of the terms and conditions specified in the agreement remain in effect until the effective date of a subsequent agreement, not to exceed one year from the expiration date stated in the agreement.
     (10) In enacting this section, the legislature intends to provide state action immunity under federal and state antitrust laws for the joint activities of adult family home providers and their exclusive bargaining representative to the extent the activities are authorized by this chapter.

Sec. 2   RCW 41.56.030 and 2006 c 54 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 (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.
     (9) "Home care quality authority" means the authority under chapter 74.39A RCW.
     (10) "Individual provider" means an individual provider as defined in RCW 74.39A.240(4) who, solely for the purposes of collective bargaining, is a public employee as provided in RCW 74.39A.270.
     (11) "Child care subsidy" means a payment from the state through a child care subsidy program established pursuant to RCW 74.12.340 or 74.08A.340, 45 C.F.R. Sec. 98.1 through 98.17, or any successor program.
     (12) "Family child care provider" means a person who: (a) Provides regularly scheduled care for a child or children in the home of the provider or in the home of the child or children for periods of less than twenty-four hours or, if necessary due to the nature of the parent's work, for periods equal to or greater than twenty-four hours; (b) receives child care subsidies; and (c) is either licensed by the state under RCW 74.15.030 or is exempt from licensing under chapter 74.15 RCW.
     (13) "Adult family home provider" means a provider as defined in RCW 70.128.010 who receives payments from the medicaid and state-funded long-term care programs.

Sec. 3   RCW 41.56.113 and 2006 c 54 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) Upon the written authorization of an individual provider ((or)), a family child care provider, or an adult family home provider within the bargaining unit and after the certification or recognition of the bargaining unit's exclusive bargaining representative, the state as payor, but not as the employer, shall, subject to subsection (3) of this section, deduct from the payments to an individual provider ((or)), a family child care provider, or an adult family home provider the monthly amount of dues as certified by the secretary of the exclusive bargaining representative and shall transmit the same to the treasurer of the exclusive bargaining representative.
     (2) If the governor and the exclusive bargaining representative of a bargaining unit of individual providers ((or)), family child care providers, or adult family home providers enter into a collective bargaining agreement that:
     (a) Includes a union security provision authorized in RCW 41.56.122, the state as payor, but not as the employer, shall, subject to subsection (3) of this section, enforce the agreement by deducting from the payments to bargaining unit members the dues required for membership in the exclusive bargaining representative, or, for nonmembers thereof, a fee equivalent to the dues; or
     (b) Includes requirements for deductions of payments other than the deduction under (a) of this subsection, the state, as payor, but not as the employer, shall, subject to subsection (3) of this section, make such deductions upon written authorization of the individual provider ((or the)), family child care provider, or adult family home provider.
     (3)(a) The initial additional costs to the state in making deductions from the payments to individual providers ((or)), family child care providers, and adult family home providers under this section shall be negotiated, agreed upon in advance, and reimbursed to the state by the exclusive bargaining representative.
     (b) The allocation of ongoing additional costs to the state in making deductions from the payments to individual providers ((or)), family child care providers, or adult family home providers under this section shall be an appropriate subject of collective bargaining between the exclusive bargaining representative and the governor unless prohibited by another statute. If no collective bargaining agreement containing a provision allocating the ongoing additional cost is entered into between the exclusive bargaining representative and the governor, or if the legislature does not approve funding for the collective bargaining agreement as provided in RCW 74.39A.300 ((or)), 41.56.028, or section 1 of this act, as applicable, the ongoing additional costs to the state in making deductions from the payments to individual providers ((or)), family child care providers, or adult family home providers under this section shall be negotiated, agreed upon in advance, and reimbursed to the state by the exclusive bargaining representative.
     (4) The governor and the exclusive bargaining representative of a bargaining unit of family child care providers may not enter into a collective bargaining agreement that contains a union security provision unless the agreement contains a process, to be administered by the exclusive bargaining representative of a bargaining unit of family child care providers, for hardship dispensation for license-exempt family child care providers who are also temporary assistance for needy families recipients or WorkFirst participants.

Sec. 4   RCW 41.04.810 and 2006 c 54 s 4 are each amended to read as follows:
     Individual providers, as defined in RCW 74.39A.240, ((and)) family child care providers, as defined in RCW 41.56.030, and adult family home providers, as defined in RCW 41.56.030, are not employees of the state or any of its political subdivisions and are specifically and entirely excluded from all provisions of this title, except as provided in RCW 74.39A.270 ((and)), 41.56.028, and section 1 of this act.

Sec. 5   RCW 43.01.047 and 2006 c 54 s 5 are each amended to read as follows:
     RCW 43.01.040 through 43.01.044 do not apply to individual providers under RCW 74.39A.220 through 74.39A.300 ((or to)), family child care providers under RCW 41.56.028, or adult family home providers under section 1 of this act.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 6   A new section is added to chapter 70.128 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) Solely for the purposes of negotiated rule making pursuant to RCW 34.05.310(2)(a) and 70.128.040, a statewide unit of all adult family home licensees is appropriate. As of the effective date of this section, the exclusive representative of adult family home licensees in the statewide unit shall be the organization certified by the American arbitration association as the sole representative after the association conducts a cross-check comparing authorization cards against the department of social and health services' records and finds that majority support for the organization exists. If adult family home licensees seek to select a different representative thereafter, the adult family home licensees may request that the American arbitration association conduct an election and certify the results of the election.
     (2) In enacting this section, the legislature intends to provide state action immunity under federal and state antitrust laws for the joint activities of licensees and their exclusive representative to the extent such activities are authorized by this chapter.

Sec. 7   RCW 70.128.010 and 2001 c 319 s 6 and 2001 c 319 s 2 are each reenacted and amended to read as follows:
     Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter.
     (1) "Adult family home" means a residential home in which a person or persons provide personal care, special care, room, and board to more than one but not more than six adults who are not related by blood or marriage to the person or persons providing the services.
     (2) "Provider" means any person who is licensed under this chapter to operate an adult family home. For the purposes of this section, "person" means any individual, partnership, corporation, association, or limited liability company.
     (3) "Department" means the department of social and health services.
     (4) "Resident" means an adult in need of personal or special care in an adult family home who is not related to the provider.
     (5) "Adults" means persons who have attained the age of eighteen years.
     (6) "Home" means an adult family home.
     (7) "Imminent danger" means serious physical harm to or death of a resident has occurred, or there is a serious threat to resident life, health, or safety.
     (8) "Special care" means care beyond personal care as defined by the department, in rule.
     (9) "Capacity" means the maximum number of persons in need of personal or special care permitted in an adult family home at a given time. This number shall include related children or adults in the home and who received special care.
     (10) "Resident manager" means a person employed or designated by the provider to manage the adult family home.
     (11) "Adult family home licensee" means a provider as defined in this section who does not receive payments from the medicaid and state-funded long-term care programs.

Sec. 8   RCW 70.128.040 and 1995 c 260 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) The department shall adopt rules and standards with respect to adult family homes and the operators thereof to be licensed under this chapter to carry out the purposes and requirements of this chapter. The rules and standards relating to applicants and operators shall address the differences between individual providers and providers that are partnerships, corporations, associations, or companies. The rules and standards shall also recognize and be appropriate to the different needs and capacities of the various populations served by adult family homes such as but not limited to ((the)) persons who are developmentally disabled ((and the)) or elderly. In developing rules and standards the department shall recognize the residential family-like nature of adult family homes and not develop rules and standards which by their complexity serve as an overly restrictive barrier to the development of the adult family homes in the state. Procedures and forms established by the department shall be developed so they are easy to understand and comply with. Paper work requirements shall be minimal. Easy to understand materials shall be developed for applicants and providers explaining licensure requirements and procedures.
     (2)(a) In developing the rules and standards, the department shall consult with all divisions and administrations within the department serving the various populations living in adult family homes, including the division of developmental disabilities and the aging and adult services administration. Involvement by the divisions and administration shall be for the purposes of assisting the department to develop rules and standards appropriate to the different needs and capacities of the various populations served by adult family homes. During the initial stages of development of proposed rules, the department shall provide notice of development of the rules to organizations representing adult family homes and their residents, and other groups that the department finds appropriate. The notice shall state the subject of the rules under consideration and solicit written recommendations regarding their form and content.
     (b) In addition, the department shall engage in negotiated rule making pursuant to RCW 34.05.310(2)(a) with the exclusive representative of the adult family home licensees selected in accordance with section 6 of this act and with other affected interests before adopting requirements that affect adult family home licensees.
     (3) Except where provided otherwise, chapter 34.05 RCW shall govern all department rule-making and adjudicative activities under this chapter.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 9   Part headings used in this act are not any part of the law.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 10   If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 11   If any part of this act is found to be in conflict with federal requirements that are a prescribed condition to the allocation of federal funds to the state, the conflicting part of this act is inoperative solely to the extent of the conflict and with respect to the agencies directly affected, and this finding does not affect the operation of the remainder of this act in its application to the agencies concerned. Rules adopted under this act must meet federal requirements that are a necessary condition to the receipt of federal funds by the state.