This bill creates a new statutory section and reenacts and amends RCW 1.16.050 to enumerate Washington’s state legal holidays and to add statutory accommodations for employees’ religious and conscience-based observances. The state legal holidays are listed in the bill and include Sunday; New Year’s Day (Jan. 1); Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (third Monday in January); Presidents’ Day (third Monday in February); Memorial Day (last Monday in May); Juneteenth (June 19); Independence Day (July 4); Labor Day (first Monday in September); Veterans Day (Nov. 11); Thanksgiving Day (fourth Thursday of November); the Friday after Thanksgiving (Native American Heritage Day); and Christmas Day (Dec. 25). The bill also declares a separate list of additional recognized days (including various cultural, historical, and religious observances such as Lunar New Year, Eid al‑Fitr, Eid al‑Adha, Hanukkah, Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and others) that are explicitly not legal holidays. Legally, the bill modifies existing law to create procedural and entitlement changes for government employees: it authorizes one additional paid holiday per calendar year for state and political subdivision employees (subject to specified exceptions and employer consultation), and it entitles employees of the state and its political subdivisions — including school district employees and certain nonclassified higher education employees with appointments under twelve months — to take two unpaid holidays per calendar year for reasons of faith or conscience or for organized religious activity. Employers must allow the two unpaid days on an employee’s preferred dates after consultation unless the absence would impose an “undue hardship” or the employee is necessary to maintain public safety; “undue hardship” is to be defined by rule of the Office of Financial Management under RCW 43.41.109. The bill requires employer guidelines for selecting these days to be promulgated by rule of the appropriate personnel authority or by local ordinance/resolution and states that it does not change paid-holiday counts in collective bargaining agreements or existing local ordinances/resolutions. The bill also addresses operational details: when a state legal holiday (other than Sunday) falls on Sunday it is observed the following Monday, and when it falls on Saturday it is observed the preceding Friday; if a state legal holiday coincides with a federal holiday observed on a different date, only the state legal holiday is a paid holiday for state employees, while certain port districts and municipal law enforcement and public transit employees may choose either the federal or state holiday (but not both). Affected entities include state agencies, political subdivisions, school districts, public institutions of higher education (including community and technical colleges and workforce training programs), port districts, municipal law enforcement and transit agencies, and the Office of Financial Management. The text provided does not identify the “appropriate personnel authority” for promulgating guidelines, does not include the OFM rule that defines “undue hardship,” and does not show the full reenacted statute or any additional sections that may be in the bill.

If enacted, most state and local government employers will have to let eligible employees take one extra paid holiday each year (with some categories like school district staff and short-term nonclassified higher‑ed employees excluded from that paid day) and must allow all employees of the state and its political subdivisions—including school districts and certain short‑term higher education workers—to take two unpaid days per year for reasons of faith, conscience, or organized religious activity unless doing so would create an “undue hardship” or the worker is needed for public safety. Employers will need to create or revise guidelines or local ordinances and manage scheduling and possible overtime or backfill costs when employees use these days; port districts and municipal law enforcement or transit agencies can choose to observe either the federal or state holiday when the dates differ, which gives them a degree of cost-control flexibility. The people and budgets most directly affected are state agencies and local governments (including ports and transit), whose staffing rules, payroll costs, and leave policies will likely change; school districts are more affected on unpaid leave availability than on paid leave. The Office of Financial Management will define “undue hardship,” and the bill does not identify the specific “appropriate personnel authority” that must set guidelines, so some implementation details and the net fiscal impact remain uncertain and will depend on those forthcoming rules and existing collective bargaining agreements.