Employees of cities, counties, and other political subdivisions of the state, bargain their wages and working conditions under the Public Employee's Collective Bargaining Act (PECBA). Language access providers also have collective bargaining rights under PECBA.

A language access provider is any independent contractor who provides spoken language interpreter services whether paid by a broker, language access agency, or the respective department:

• for Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) appointments, Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) appointments, Medicaid enrollee appointments, or who provided these services on or after January 1, 2011, and before June 10, 2012;
• for Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) authorized medical and vocational providers who provided these services on or after January 1, 2019; or
• for state agencies who provided these services on or after January 1, 2019.

Managers and employees of brokers or language access agencies are not language access providers for the purposes of collective bargaining.

Language access providers may form three different statewide bargaining units, which include:

• providers for DSHS appointments, DCYF appointments, or Medicaid enrollee appointments;
• providers for injured workers or crime victims receiving benefits from L&I; and
• other providers for any state agency through the Department of Enterprise Services. 

References to appointments are removed from the statute relating to the appropriate bargaining unit for spoken language interpreters providing services for DSHS, DCYF, and Medicaid enrollees, so the appropriate bargaining unit is a statewide unit of language access providers who provide spoken language interpreter services for DSHS, DCYF, or Medicaid enrollees.