Correctional officers/arb.

AN ACT Relating to expanding the definition of law enforcement 1
personnel regarding correctional officers for purposes of interest 2
arbitration; and reenacting and amending RCW 41.56.030.3
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:4
Sec. 1. RCW 41.56.030 and 2025 c 322 s 1 and 2025 c 113 s 1 are 5
each reenacted and amended to read as follows: 6
As used in this chapter: 7
(1) "Adult family home provider" means a provider as defined in 8
RCW 70.128.010 who receives payments from the medicaid and state-9
funded long-term care programs. 10
(2) "Bargaining representative" means any lawful organization 11
which has as one of its primary purposes the representation of 12
employees in their employment relations with employers.13
(3) "Child care subsidy" means a payment from the state through a 14
child care subsidy program established pursuant to RCW 74.12.340, 45 15
C.F.R. Sec. 98.1 through 98.17, or any successor program.16
(4) "Collective bargaining" means the performance of the mutual 17
obligations of the public employer and the exclusive bargaining 18
representative to meet at reasonable times, to confer and negotiate 19
in good faith, and to execute a written agreement with respect to 20
grievance procedures, subject to RCW 41.58.070, and collective 21
H-2458.2
HOUSE BILL 2137
State of Washington 69th Legislature 2026 Regular Session
By Representatives Bronoske, Leavitt, Parshley, Kloba, Low, Berry,
Obras, Zahn, Goodman, Reeves, and Salahuddin
Prefiled 12/15/25. Read first time 01/12/26. Referred to Committee
on Labor & Workplace Standards.
p. 1 HB 2137
negotiations on personnel matters, including wages, hours, and 1
working conditions, which may be peculiar to an appropriate 2
bargaining unit of such public employer, except that by such 3
obligation neither party shall be compelled to agree to a proposal or 4
be required to make a concession unless otherwise provided in this 5
chapter. 6
(5) "Commission" means the public employment relations 7
commission. 8
(6) "Executive director" means the executive director of the 9
commission. 10
(7) "Family child care provider" means a person who: (a) Provides 11
regularly scheduled care for a child or children in the home of the 12
provider or in the home of the child or children for periods of less 13
than twenty-four hours or, if necessary due to the nature of the 14
parent's work, for periods equal to or greater than twenty-four 15
hours; (b) receives child care subsidies; and (c) under chapter 16
43.216 RCW, is either licensed by the state or is exempt from 17
licensing. 18
(8) "Fish and wildlife officer" means a fish and wildlife officer 19
as defined in RCW 77.08.010 who ranks below deputy chief and includes 20
officers, detectives, sergeants, lieutenants, and captains of the 21
department of fish and wildlife. 22
(9) "Individual provider" means an individual provider as defined 23
in RCW 74.39A.240(3) who, solely for the purposes of collective 24
bargaining, is a public employee as provided in RCW 74.39A.270.25
(10) "Institution of higher education" means the University of 26
Washington, Washington State University, Central Washington 27
University, Eastern Washington University, Western Washington 28
University, The Evergreen State College, and the various state 29
community colleges. 30
(11)(a) "Language access provider" means any independent 31
contractor who provides spoken language interpreter services, whether 32
paid by a broker, language access agency, or the respective 33
department: 34
(i) For department of social and health services appointments, 35
department of children, youth, and families appointments, medicaid 36
enrollee appointments, or who provided these services on or after 37
January 1, 2011, and before June 10, 2012; 38
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(ii) For department of labor and industries authorized medical 1
and vocational providers who provided these services on or after 2
January 1, 2019; or 3
(iii) For state agencies who provided these services on or after 4
January 1, 2019. 5
(b) "Language access provider" does not mean a manager or 6
employee of a broker or a language access agency. 7
(12) "Public employee" means any employee of a public employer 8
except any person (a) elected by popular vote, or (b) appointed to 9
office pursuant to statute, ordinance or resolution for a specified 10
term of office as a member of a multimember board, commission, or 11
committee, whether appointed by the executive head or body of the 12
public employer, or (c) whose duties as deputy, administrative 13
assistant or secretary necessarily imply a confidential relationship 14
to (i) the executive head or body of the applicable bargaining unit, 15
or (ii) any person elected by popular vote, or (iii) any person 16
appointed to office pursuant to statute, ordinance or resolution for 17
a specified term of office as a member of a multimember board, 18
commission, or committee, whether appointed by the executive head or 19
body of the public employer, or (d) who is a court commissioner or a 20
court magistrate of superior court, district court, or a department 21
of a district court organized under chapter 3.46 RCW, or (e) who is a 22
personal assistant to a district court judge, superior court judge, 23
or court commissioner. For the purpose of (e) of this subsection, no 24
more than one assistant for each judge or commissioner may be 25
excluded from a bargaining unit. 26
(13) "Public employer" means any officer, board, commission, 27
council, or other person or body acting on behalf of any public body 28
governed by this chapter, or any subdivision of such public body. For 29
the purposes of this section, the public employer of district court 30
or superior court employees for wage-related matters is the 31
respective county legislative authority, or person or body acting on 32
behalf of the legislative authority, and the public employer for 33
nonwage-related matters is the judge or judge's designee of the 34
respective district court or superior court. For the purposes of this 35
chapter, public employer does not include a comprehensive cancer 36
center participating in a collaborative arrangement as defined in RCW 37
28B.10.930 that is operated in conformance with RCW 28B.10.930.38
(14) "Uniformed personnel" means: (a) Law enforcement officers as 39
defined in RCW 41.26.030 employed by the governing body of any city 40
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or town, law enforcement officers employed by the governing body of 1
any county, and law enforcement officers employed by the governing 2
body of a municipal airport operating under the provisions of chapter 3
14.08 RCW; (b) correctional employees who are uniformed and 4
nonuniformed, commissioned and noncommissioned security personnel 5
employed in a jail as defined in RCW 70.48.020(9), ((by a county with 6
a population of seventy thousand or more, )) in a correctional 7
facility created under RCW 70.48.095, or in a detention facility 8
created under chapter 13.40 RCW that is located in a county with a 9
population over one million five hundred thousand, and who are 10
trained for and charged with the responsibility of controlling and 11
maintaining custody of inmates in the jail and safeguarding inmates 12
from other inmates; (c) general authority Washington peace officers 13
as defined in RCW 10.93.020 employed by a port district in a county 14
with a population of one million or more; (d) security forces 15
established under RCW 43.52.520; (e) firefighters as that term is 16
defined in RCW 41.26.030; (f) employees of a port district in a 17
county with a population of one million or more whose duties include 18
crash fire rescue or other firefighting duties; (g) employees of fire 19
departments of public employers who dispatch exclusively either fire 20
or emergency medical services, or both; (h) employees in the several 21
classes of advanced life support technicians, as defined in RCW 22
18.71.200, who are employed by a public employer; (i) court marshals 23
of any county who are employed by, trained for, and commissioned by 24
the county sheriff and charged with the responsibility of enforcing 25
laws, protecting and maintaining security in all county-owned or 26
contracted property, and performing any other duties assigned to them 27
by the county sheriff or mandated by judicial order; or (j) public 28
safety telecommunicators, as defined in RCW 38.60.020, employed by a 29
public employer. This subsection (14)(j) does not apply to public 30
safety telecommunicators employed by the Washington state patrol or 31
any other state agency. 32
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