Collective bargaining/AI use

AN ACT Relating to allowing bargaining over matters related to 1
the use of artificial intelligence; amending RCW 41.56.021, 2
41.80.005, 41.80.040, and 41.80.430; adding a new section to chapter 3
41.56 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 41.80 RCW; and creating a 4
new section. 5
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:6
Sec. 1. RCW 41.56.021 and 2007 c 136 s 1 are each amended to 7
read as follows: 8
(1) In addition to the entities listed in RCW 41.56.020, this 9
chapter applies to employees of institutions of higher education who 10
are exempted from civil service pursuant to RCW 41.06.070(2), with 11
the following exceptions: 12
(a) Executive employees, including all members of the governing 13
board of each institution of higher education and related boards; all 14
presidents and vice presidents; deans, directors, and chairs; and 15
executive heads of major administrative or academic divisions;16
(b) Managers who perform any of the following functions:17
(i) Formulate, develop, or establish institutional policy, or 18
direct the work of an administrative unit; 19
(ii) Manage, administer, and control a program, including its 20
physical, financial, or personnel resources; 21
S-0684.1
SENATE BILL 5422
State of Washington 69th Legislature 2025 Regular Session
By Senators Bateman, Conway, Chapman, Cleveland, Frame, Hasegawa,
Nobles, Orwall, Saldaña, Salomon, Stanford, Trudeau, and Valdez
Read first time 01/22/25. Referred to Committee on Labor & Commerce.
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(iii) Have substantial responsibility for human resources 1
administration, legislative relations, public information, internal 2
audits and investigations, or the preparation and administration of 3
budgets; 4
(iv) Functionally is above the first level of supervision and 5
exercises authority that is not merely routine or clerical in nature 6
and requires the consistent use of independent judgment;7
(c) Employees who, in the regular course of their duties, act as 8
a principal assistant, administrative assistant, or personal 9
assistant to employees as defined by (a) of this subsection;10
(d) Confidential employees; 11
(e) Employees who assist assistant attorneys general who advise 12
and represent managers or confidential employees in personnel or 13
labor relations matters, or who advise or represent the state in tort 14
actions. 15
(2) Employees subject to this section shall not be included in 16
any unit of employees certified under RCW 41.56.022, 41.56.024, or 17
41.56.203, chapter 41.76 RCW, or chapter 41.80 RCW. Employees whose 18
eligibility for collective bargaining is covered by chapter 28B.52, 19
41.76, or 41.80 RCW are exempt from the provisions of this chapter.20
(3) Institutions of higher education and the exclusive bargaining 21
representatives shall not agree to any proposal that would prevent 22
the implementation of approved affirmative action plans or that would 23
be inconsistent with the comparable worth agreement that provided the 24
basis for the salary changes implemented beginning with the 1983-1985 25
biennium to achieve comparable worth. 26
(4) Institutions of higher education and the exclusive bargaining 27
representative shall not bargain over rights of management that, in 28
addition to all powers, duties, and rights established by 29
constitutional provision or statute, shall include but not be limited 30
to the following: 31
(a) The functions and programs of the institution((, the));32
(b) The use of technology ((, and the )), except as provided in 33
section 5 of this act;34
(c) The structure of the organization; 35
(((b))) (d) The institution's budget and the size of its 36
workforce, including determining the financial basis for layoffs;37
(((c))) (e) The right to direct and supervise employees;38
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(((d))) (f) The right to take whatever actions are deemed 1
necessary to carry out the mission of the state and the institutions 2
of higher education during emergencies; 3
(((e))) (g) Retirement plans and retirement benefits; or4
(((f))) (h) Health care benefits or other employee insurance 5
benefits, except as provided in RCW 41.80.020. 6
Sec. 2. RCW 41.80.005 and 2023 c 136 s 2 are each amended to 7
read as follows: 8
Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the definitions in 9
this section apply throughout this chapter. 10
(1) "Agency" means any agency as defined in RCW 41.06.020 and 11
covered by chapter 41.06 RCW. "Agency" also includes the assistant 12
attorneys general of the attorney general's office and the 13
administrative law judges of the office of administrative hearings, 14
regardless of whether those employees are exempt under chapter 41.06 15
RCW. "Agency" does not include a comprehensive cancer center 16
participating in a collaborative arrangement as defined in RCW 17
28B.10.930 that is operated in conformance with RCW 28B.10.930.18
(2)(a) "Artificial intelligence" means the use of machine 19
learning and related technologies that use data to train statistical 20
models for the purpose of enabling computer systems to perform tasks 21
normally associated with human intelligence or perception, such as 22
computer vision, speech or natural language processing, translation, 23
decision making, and content generation.24
(b) For purposes of this subsection, "machine learning" means the 25
process by which artificial intelligence is developed using data and 26
algorithms to draw inferences thereupon to automatically adapt or 27
improve its accuracy without explicit programming.28
(3) "Collective bargaining" means the performance of the mutual 29
obligation of the representatives of the employer and the exclusive 30
bargaining representative to meet at reasonable times and to bargain 31
in good faith in an effort to reach agreement with respect to the 32
subjects of bargaining specified under RCW 41.80.020. The obligation 33
to bargain does not compel either party to agree to a proposal or to 34
make a concession, except as otherwise provided in this chapter.35
(((3))) (4) "Commission" means the public employment relations 36
commission. 37
(((4))) (5) "Confidential employee" means an employee who, in the 38
regular course of his or her duties, assists in a confidential 39
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capacity persons who formulate, determine, and effectuate management 1
policies with regard to labor relations or who, in the regular course 2
of his or her duties, has authorized access to information relating 3
to the effectuation or review of the employer's collective bargaining 4
policies, or who assists or aids a manager. "Confidential employee" 5
also includes employees who assist assistant attorneys general who 6
advise and represent managers or confidential employees in personnel 7
or labor relations matters. 8
(((5))) (6) "Director" means the director of the public 9
employment relations commission. 10
(((6))) (7) "Employee" means any employee, including employees 11
whose work has ceased in connection with the pursuit of lawful 12
activities protected by this chapter, covered by chapter 41.06 RCW. 13
"Employee" includes assistant attorneys general of the office of the 14
attorney general and administrative law judges of the office of 15
administrative hearings, regardless of their exemption under chapter 16
41.06 RCW. "Employee" does not include: 17
(a) Employees covered for collective bargaining by chapter 41.56 18
RCW; 19
(b) Confidential employees; 20
(c) Members of the Washington management service excluded from 21
collective bargaining under RCW 41.80.430; 22
(d) Internal auditors in any agency; or 23
(e) Any employee of the commission, the office of financial 24
management, or the office of risk management within the department of 25
enterprise services. 26
(((7))) (8) "Employee organization" means any organization, 27
union, or association in which employees participate and that exists 28
for the purpose, in whole or in part, of collective bargaining with 29
employers. 30
(((8))) (9) "Employer" means the state of Washington.31
(((9))) (10) "Exclusive bargaining representative" means any 32
employee organization that has been certified under this chapter as 33
the representative of the employees in an appropriate bargaining 34
unit. 35
(((10))) (11) "Institutions of higher education" means the 36
University of Washington, Washington State University, Central 37
Washington University, Eastern Washington University, Western 38
Washington University, The Evergreen State College, and the various 39
state community colleges. 40
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(((11))) (12) "Labor dispute" means any controversy concerning 1
terms, tenure, or conditions of employment, or concerning the 2
association or representation of persons in negotiating, fixing, 3
maintaining, changing, or seeking to arrange terms or conditions of 4
employment with respect to the subjects of bargaining provided in 5
this chapter, regardless of whether the disputants stand in the 6
proximate relation of employer and employee. 7
(((12))) (13) "Manager" means "manager" as defined in RCW 8
41.06.022. 9
(((13))) (14) "Supervisor" means an employee who has authority, 10
in the interest of the employer, to hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, 11
recall, promote, discharge, direct, reward, or discipline employees, 12
or to adjust employee grievances, or effectively to recommend such 13
action, if the exercise of the authority is not of a merely routine 14
nature but requires the consistent exercise of individual judgment.15
(((14))) (15) "Unfair labor practice" means any unfair labor 16
practice listed in RCW 41.80.110. 17
(((15))) (16) "Uniformed personnel" means duly sworn police 18
officers employed as members of a police force established pursuant 19
to RCW 28B.10.550. 20
Sec. 3. RCW 41.80.040 and 2020 c 357 s 913 are each amended to 21
read as follows: 22
The employer shall not bargain over rights of management which, 23
in addition to all powers, duties, and rights established by 24
constitutional provision or statute, shall include but not be limited 25
to the following: 26
(1) The functions and programs of the employer((, the));27
(2) The use of technology ((, and the )), except as provided in 28
section 6 of this act;29
(3) The structure of the organization; 30
(((2))) (4) The employer's budget, which includes for purposes of 31
any negotiations conducted during the 2019-2021 fiscal biennium any 32
specification of the funds or accounts that must be appropriated by 33
the legislature to fulfill the terms of an agreement, and the size of 34
the agency workforce, including determining the financial basis for 35
layoffs; 36
(((3))) (5) The right to direct and supervise employees;37
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(((4))) (6) The right to take whatever actions are deemed 1
necessary to carry out the mission of the state and its agencies 2
during emergencies; and 3
(((5))) (7) Retirement plans and retirement benefits.4
Sec. 4. RCW 41.80.430 and 2023 c 136 s 3 are each amended to 5
read as follows: 6
(1)(a) Washington management service members who are not 7
otherwise excluded from bargaining under (b) of this subsection are 8
granted the right to collectively bargain. 9
(b) The following Washington management service members are 10
excluded from bargaining: 11
(i) Employees in positions within Washington management salary 12
band 3, salary band 4, and medical band, as defined by the office of 13
financial management; 14
(ii) Human resource managers; 15
(iii) Budget managers; 16
(iv) Risk and litigation managers; 17
(v) Employees in positions whose official primary duties include 18
conducting employee-related investigations including, but not limited 19
to, a possible unfair practice under chapter 49.60 RCW, a possible 20
violation of other federal, state, or local laws or an employing 21
agency's internal policies, and employee misconduct or performance;22
(vi) Employees in positions that report directly to an assistant 23
secretary, deputy secretary, agency director, or equivalent, of an 24
agency; and 25
(vii) Employees in positions excluded under RCW 41.80.005(((6))) 26
(7). 27
(c) Bargaining over wages will be limited to Washington 28
management service salary band levels, not individual Washington 29
management service classifications or positions. 30
(2)(a) Except as provided in (b) of this subsection, the only 31
units that may be designated for the purpose of collective bargaining 32
under this chapter are a supervisory or nonsupervisory unit, as 33
determined by the commission, of all salary band 1 and salary band 2 34
Washington management service members within an agency that are not 35
otherwise excluded from bargaining under this section.36
(b) Subject to the public employment relations commission's 37
review and to avoid excessive fragmentation, more than two bargaining 38
units that otherwise meet the parameters in (a) of this subsection 39
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may be designated within a major administrative division of the 1
following agencies: The department of corrections, the department of 2
social and health services, the department of children, youth, and 3
families, the department of transportation, the department of health, 4
the state health care authority, the department of natural resources, 5
the department of enterprise services, the department of ecology, the 6
employment security department, and the department of fish and 7
wildlife. 8
(3) The governor or the governor's designee and an exclusive 9
bargaining representative shall negotiate for eligible Washington 10
management service members within the bargaining agreements under RCW 11
41.80.010(2)(a)(i). 12
(4) No collective bargaining agreement entered into under this 13
section with an exclusive bargaining representative of members of the 14
Washington management service may take effect prior to July 1, 2025.15
NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. A new section is added to chapter 41.56 16
RCW to read as follows: 17
(1) An employer shall bargain over the decision to adopt 18
artificial intelligence technology or modify the current uses of 19
artificial intelligence technology if the adoption or modification 20
affects employees' wages, hours, or other terms and conditions of 21
employment. 22
(2) For purposes of this section, "artificial intelligence" has 23
the same meaning as defined in RCW 41.80.005. 24
NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. A new section is added to chapter 41.80 25
RCW to read as follows: 26
An employer shall bargain over the decision to adopt artificial 27
intelligence technology or modify the current uses of artificial 28
intelligence technology if the adoption or modification affects 29
employees' wages, hours, or other terms and conditions of employment.30
NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. Contracts in effect prior to the effective 31
date of this section remain unaffected by sections 5 and 6 of this 32
act until the contract expires or is renewed or reopened.33
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