This bill amends existing collective bargaining law to designate the governor (or a governor’s designee) as the public employer and bargaining representative for several categories of providers and employees solely for collective bargaining purposes, including family child care providers, adult family home providers, language access providers, certain ferry and fish and wildlife officers, and aspects of school and higher education bargaining. It limits the scope of bargaining for these groups to specified economic matters (wages, manner and rate of subsidy or reimbursement, health and welfare benefits, training, grievance procedures, labor-management committees, and similar economic topics) and expressly excludes retirement benefits; it also prohibits strikes by some provider groups and makes mediation and interest arbitration procedures applicable with specified exceptions (including that arbitration decisions are not binding on the legislature and that panels must consider the state’s financial ability). The bill imposes procedural changes for funding and implementation of agreements: requests to implement compensation and benefit provisions must be submitted to the Office of Financial Management (OFM) director by October 1 before the legislative session and must be certified by OFM as financially feasible (or reflect a binding arbitration decision) before the governor may submit them to the legislature; OFM must refuse certification where the governor’s budget proposes funding by “raising taxes” (defined here as any legislative action that increases state tax revenue deposited in any fund or account) or by withdrawing/appropriating from the budget stabilization account in a way that requires a three-fifths vote. The legislature must approve or reject such requests as a whole, and if it rejects or fails to act the agreement may be reopened only to renegotiate the funds necessary to implement it. The bill also establishes or amends procedural rules for specific contexts: elections for exclusive representatives, periodic bargaining schedules, reporting requirements for language access procurement, special rules for ferry employees, and creation and procedures of a rate‑setting board and related labor and administrative rate rules for consumer directed employers (including submission deadlines, a one-time transfer for unclaimed paid time off, limits on between‑board rate changes, and that labor rates must be used to pay wages/taxes/benefits). The changes are modifications to existing statutes (multiple RCWs are amended, including but not limited to RCW 41.56.028, 41.56.029, 41.56.473, 41.56.500, 41.56.510, 41.56.515, 41.59.105, 41.80.010, 47.64.170, 74.39A.300, and 74.39A.530) and add detailed procedural and administrative provisions. Some text in the extracted material is incomplete or begins or ends mid‑sentence, and several cross‑references and full definitions (for example, the department referenced in some sections and the statutory definition of “collective bargaining” cited at RCW 41.56.030(4)) are not included here, so precise application in every instance cannot be fully determined from these excerpts alone.

If enacted, employers and frontline service providers such as family child care and adult family home providers, language access interpreters, in‑home care workers, ferry employees, and certain law enforcement officers will be able to bargain over pay, benefits, training and similar economic matters with the governor (or a governor’s designee) as the public employer, but any pay or benefit changes will only take effect if the Office of Financial Management certifies they are financially feasible and the legislature approves the funding as part of the governor’s budget. That makes new or increased compensation dependent on the regular budget calendar and OFM’s certification rules (which bar certification if the governor proposes to fund costs by “raising taxes” or using the budget stabilization account in ways that require a three‑fifths vote), so failed certification or legislative rejection will force negotiators to reopen deals to renegotiate only the funding components, likely delaying or reducing the intended wage or benefit increases. Providers also lose strike rights and arbitration awards are not binding on the legislature, which reduces bargaining leverage and increases the chance that negotiated economic gains will be trimmed or postponed. Consumer directed employers and the state’s in‑home care system face specific operational changes: a rate‑setting board will recommend a labor rate and administrative rate that, if certified by OFM and approved by the legislature, must be passed to consumer directed employers and used to pay worker wages, taxes, and benefits (with the employer retaining discretion on exact wages within limits). The board’s schedule, selection and voting rules, transfer of unclaimed paid time off to employers, limits on interim rate changes (no more than two percent without new appropriation), and the October 1 OFM submission deadlines mean rate increases are likely to be phased, tied to legislative appropriations, and potentially subject to delay; several sections of the measure are incomplete or reference unspecified departments, so some implementation details and exact administrative roles remain unclear.