Fish and wildlife officers

AN ACT Relating to collective bargaining by fish and wildlife 1
officers; and amending RCW 41.56.030. 2
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:3
Sec. 1. RCW 41.56.030 and 2024 c 124 s 1 are each amended to 4
read as follows: 5
As used in this chapter: 6
(1) "Adult family home provider" means a provider as defined in 7
RCW 70.128.010 who receives payments from the medicaid and state-8
funded long-term care programs. 9
(2) "Bargaining representative" means any lawful organization 10
which has as one of its primary purposes the representation of 11
employees in their employment relations with employers.12
(3) "Child care subsidy" means a payment from the state through a 13
child care subsidy program established pursuant to RCW 74.12.340, 45 14
C.F.R. Sec. 98.1 through 98.17, or any successor program.15
(4) "Collective bargaining" means the performance of the mutual 16
obligations of the public employer and the exclusive bargaining 17
representative to meet at reasonable times, to confer and negotiate 18
in good faith, and to execute a written agreement with respect to 19
grievance procedures, subject to RCW 41.58.070, and collective 20
negotiations on personnel matters, including wages, hours, and 21
S-1039.1
SENATE BILL 5653
State of Washington 69th Legislature 2025 Regular Session
By Senators Chapman, Hasegawa, MacEwen, and Nobles
Read first time 02/04/25. Referred to Committee on Labor & Commerce.
p. 1 SB 5653
working conditions, which may be peculiar to an appropriate 1
bargaining unit of such public employer, except that by such 2
obligation neither party shall be compelled to agree to a proposal or 3
be required to make a concession unless otherwise provided in this 4
chapter. 5
(5) "Commission" means the public employment relations 6
commission. 7
(6) "Executive director" means the executive director of the 8
commission. 9
(7) "Family child care provider" means a person who: (a) Provides 10
regularly scheduled care for a child or children in the home of the 11
provider or in the home of the child or children for periods of less 12
than twenty-four hours or, if necessary due to the nature of the 13
parent's work, for periods equal to or greater than twenty-four 14
hours; (b) receives child care subsidies; and (c) under chapter 15
43.216 RCW, is either licensed by the state or is exempt from 16
licensing. 17
(8) "Fish and wildlife officer" means a fish and wildlife officer 18
as defined in RCW 77.08.010 who ranks below ((lieutenant)) deputy 19
chief and includes officers, detectives, ((and)) sergeants, 20
lieutenants, and captains of the department of fish and wildlife.21
(9) "Individual provider" means an individual provider as defined 22
in RCW 74.39A.240(3) who, solely for the purposes of collective 23
bargaining, is a public employee as provided in RCW 74.39A.270.24
(10) "Institution of higher education" means the University of 25
Washington, Washington State University, Central Washington 26
University, Eastern Washington University, Western Washington 27
University, The Evergreen State College, and the various state 28
community colleges. 29
(11)(a) "Language access provider" means any independent 30
contractor who provides spoken language interpreter services, whether 31
paid by a broker, language access agency, or the respective 32
department: 33
(i) For department of social and health services appointments, 34
department of children, youth, and families appointments, medicaid 35
enrollee appointments, or who provided these services on or after 36
January 1, 2011, and before June 10, 2012; 37
(ii) For department of labor and industries authorized medical 38
and vocational providers who provided these services on or after 39
January 1, 2019; or 40
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(iii) For state agencies who provided these services on or after 1
January 1, 2019. 2
(b) "Language access provider" does not mean a manager or 3
employee of a broker or a language access agency. 4
(12) "Public employee" means any employee of a public employer 5
except any person (a) elected by popular vote, or (b) appointed to 6
office pursuant to statute, ordinance or resolution for a specified 7
term of office as a member of a multimember board, commission, or 8
committee, whether appointed by the executive head or body of the 9
public employer, or (c) whose duties as deputy, administrative 10
assistant or secretary necessarily imply a confidential relationship 11
to (i) the executive head or body of the applicable bargaining unit, 12
or (ii) any person elected by popular vote, or (iii) any person 13
appointed to office pursuant to statute, ordinance or resolution for 14
a specified term of office as a member of a multimember board, 15
commission, or committee, whether appointed by the executive head or 16
body of the public employer, or (d) who is a court commissioner or a 17
court magistrate of superior court, district court, or a department 18
of a district court organized under chapter 3.46 RCW, or (e) who is a 19
personal assistant to a district court judge, superior court judge, 20
or court commissioner. For the purpose of (e) of this subsection, no 21
more than one assistant for each judge or commissioner may be 22
excluded from a bargaining unit. 23
(13) "Public employer" means any officer, board, commission, 24
council, or other person or body acting on behalf of any public body 25
governed by this chapter, or any subdivision of such public body. For 26
the purposes of this section, the public employer of district court 27
or superior court employees for wage-related matters is the 28
respective county legislative authority, or person or body acting on 29
behalf of the legislative authority, and the public employer for 30
nonwage-related matters is the judge or judge's designee of the 31
respective district court or superior court. For the purposes of this 32
chapter, public employer does not include a comprehensive cancer 33
center participating in a collaborative arrangement as defined in RCW 34
28B.10.930 that is operated in conformance with RCW 28B.10.930.35
(14) "Uniformed personnel" means: (a) Law enforcement officers as 36
defined in RCW 41.26.030 employed by the governing body of any city 37
or town with a population of two thousand five hundred or more and 38
law enforcement officers employed by the governing body of any county 39
with a population of ten thousand or more; (b) correctional employees 40
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who are uniformed and nonuniformed, commissioned and noncommissioned 1
security personnel employed in a jail as defined in RCW 70.48.020(9), 2
by a county with a population of seventy thousand or more, in a 3
correctional facility created under RCW 70.48.095, or in a detention 4
facility created under chapter 13.40 RCW that is located in a county 5
with a population over one million five hundred thousand, and who are 6
trained for and charged with the responsibility of controlling and 7
maintaining custody of inmates in the jail and safeguarding inmates 8
from other inmates; (c) general authority Washington peace officers 9
as defined in RCW 10.93.020 employed by a port district in a county 10
with a population of one million or more; (d) security forces 11
established under RCW 43.52.520; (e) firefighters as that term is 12
defined in RCW 41.26.030; (f) employees of a port district in a 13
county with a population of one million or more whose duties include 14
crash fire rescue or other firefighting duties; (g) employees of fire 15
departments of public employers who dispatch exclusively either fire 16
or emergency medical services, or both; (h) employees in the several 17
classes of advanced life support technicians, as defined in RCW 18
18.71.200, who are employed by a public employer; (i) court marshals 19
of any county who are employed by, trained for, and commissioned by 20
the county sheriff and charged with the responsibility of enforcing 21
laws, protecting and maintaining security in all county-owned or 22
contracted property, and performing any other duties assigned to them 23
by the county sheriff or mandated by judicial order; or (j) public 24
safety telecommunicators, as defined in RCW 38.60.020, employed by a 25
public employer. This subsection (14)(j) does not apply to public 26
safety telecommunicators employed by the Washington state patrol or 27
any other state agency. 28
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