This bill amends RCW 1.16.050 (and 2024 c 76 s 3) to change the state list of legal holidays and recognized days and to add specific employee leave entitlements and rules. It lists the state legal holidays (including New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Native American Heritage Day, and Christmas) and explicitly adds the first day of the tenth month of the Islamic calendar (Eid al-Fitr) and the tenth day of the twelfth month of the Islamic calendar (Eid al-Adha) to the statute’s list of recognized days that are not legal holidays. The bill includes definitions for those two Islamic dates and for lunar new year recognition, and it sets the rule for weekend observance of holidays (if a named state holiday other than Sunday falls on Sunday, the following Monday is the legal holiday; if it falls on Saturday, the preceding Friday is the legal holiday). The bill modifies existing law to require that state employees and employees of political subdivisions be allowed one additional paid holiday per year (selected after consultation and pursuant to personnel rules or local ordinance/resolution) and that all such employees, including school district employees and certain nonclassified higher education employees, be allowed two unpaid holidays per year for reasons of faith or conscience or for organized religious activities (selected after consultation), with employers required to permit the specific days unless doing so would impose an “undue hardship” or the employee is necessary to maintain public safety. It also clarifies that when a state legal holiday coincides with a federal legal holiday observed on a different date, only the state date is considered a paid legal holiday for state employees, while port districts and municipal law enforcement and public transit employees may recognize either the federal or the state date as paid but not both. The meaning of “undue hardship” is delegated to rules of the Office of Financial Management under RCW 43.41.109. Affected parties identified in the text include state employees, employees of political subdivisions, school district employees, certain nonclassified employees of higher education, public institutions of higher education, port districts, municipal law enforcement and public transit employees, employers and local legislative authorities, and the Office of Financial Management for rulemaking. The extracted material does not show the prior text being replaced in full, the specific personnel guidelines or local ordinances implementing the paid holiday selection, or the precise rule language defining “undue hardship.”

If enacted, state and local government employees would gain a guaranteed extra paid holiday each year they can pick after consulting their employer, plus two unpaid days per year they can use for religious reasons; employers must allow those unpaid days unless doing so would create an OFM-defined "undue hardship" or the employee is needed for public safety. The bill also formally recognizes Eid al‑Fitr and Eid al‑Adha (and defines their shifting lunar dates) as recognized days, clarifies weekend observance rules, and says when federal and state holidays conflict the state holiday is the paid day for most state and local employees while ports and municipal law enforcement/public transit can choose either the federal or state date but not both. Most affected are state agencies, political subdivisions (including school districts and some higher‑education employees), port districts, and municipal public safety/transit employers; they will need to adjust staffing and payroll practices to accommodate an extra paid holiday and two unpaid religious days, which could raise costs from overtime or temporary coverage and require local ordinances or personnel rules to be updated. The Office of Financial Management will need to issue rules about what counts as an "undue hardship." The text does not provide the detailed personnel rules or local ordinance language that would determine exact scheduling, cost calculations, or how agencies must handle conflicts in practice.