Bill Summary – FastDemocracy

S-3611.1
                                 SENATE BILL 6124
     State of Washington         68th Legislature      2024 Regular Session
     By Senators Holy, Keiser, Billig, Frame, Hunt, Kuderer, Lovelett,
     Lovick, Nobles, Saldaña, Shewmake, Stanford, and Valdez
     Read first time 01/10/24.    Referred to Committee on State Government
     & Elections.
      AN ACT Relating to allowing state employees living in an
  emergency or disaster area to receive shared leave; and amending RCW
  41.04.665.
  BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
     Sec. 1. RCW 41.04.665 and 2020 c 6 s 2 are each amended to read
 as follows:
     (1) An agency head may permit an employee to receive leave under
 this section if:
     (a)(i) The employee suffers from, or has a relative or household
 member suffering from, an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or
 mental condition which is of an extraordinary or severe nature;
     (ii) The employee has been called to service in the uniformed
 services;
     (iii) The employee is a current member of the uniformed services
 or is a veteran as defined under RCW 41.04.005, and is attending
 medical appointments or treatments for a service connected injury or
 disability;
     (iv) The employee is a spouse of a current member of the
 uniformed services or a veteran as defined under RCW 41.04.005, who
 is attending medical appointments or treatments for a service
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 connected injury or disability and requires assistance while
 attending appointment or treatment;
     (v) A state of emergency has been declared anywhere within the
 United States by the federal or any state government and the employee
 has needed skills to assist in responding to the emergency or its
 aftermath and volunteers his or her services to either a governmental
 agency or to a nonprofit organization engaged in humanitarian relief
 in the devastated area, and the governmental agency or nonprofit
 organization accepts the employee's offer of volunteer services;
     (vi) The employee is a victim of domestic violence, sexual
 assault, or stalking;
     (vii) The employee needs the time for parental leave; ((or))
     (viii) The employee is sick or temporarily disabled because of
 pregnancy disability; or
     (ix) The employee lives in an area affected by an emergency or
 disaster as defined in RCW 38.52.010;
     (b) The illness, injury, impairment, condition, call to service,
 emergency or disaster, emergency volunteer service, or consequence of
 domestic violence, sexual assault, temporary layoff under section
 3(5), chapter 32, Laws of 2010 1st sp. sess., or stalking has caused,
 or is likely to cause, the employee to:
     (i) Go on leave without pay status; or
     (ii) Terminate state employment;
     (c) The employee's absence and the use of shared leave are
 justified;
     (d) The employee has depleted or will shortly deplete his or her:
     (i) Annual leave and sick leave reserves if he or she qualifies
 under (a)(i) of this subsection;
     (ii) Annual leave and paid military leave allowed under RCW
 38.40.060 if he or she qualifies under (a)(ii) of this subsection;
     (iii) Annual leave if he or she qualifies under (a) (v) ((or)),
 (vi), or (ix) of this subsection; or
     (iv) Annual leave and sick leave reserves if the employee
 qualifies under (a)(vii) or (viii) of this subsection;
     (e) The employee has abided by agency rules regarding:
     (i) Sick leave use if he or she qualifies under (a)(i), (vi),
 (vii), or (viii) of this subsection; or
     (ii) Military leave if he or she qualifies under (a)(ii) of this
 subsection; and
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     (f)(i) Until the expiration of proclamation 20-05, issued
 February 29, 2020, by the governor and declaring a state of emergency
 in the state of Washington, or any amendment thereto, whichever is
 later, an agency head may permit an employee to receive shared leave
 under this section if the employee, or a relative or household
 member, is isolated or quarantined as recommended, requested, or
 ordered by a public health official or health care provider as a
 result of suspected or confirmed infection with or exposure to the
 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19). An agency head may permit use of
 shared leave under this subsection (1)(f) without considering the
 requirements of (a) through (e) of this subsection.
     (ii) The office of the governor must provide notice of the
 expiration of proclamation 20-05, or any amendment thereto, whichever
 is later, to the chief clerk of the house of representatives, the
 secretary of the senate, the office of the code reviser, and others
 as deemed appropriate by the office of the governor.
     (2)(a) The agency head shall determine the amount of leave, if
 any, which an employee may receive under this section. However, the
 agency head may not prevent an employee from using shared leave
 intermittently or on nonconsecutive days so long as the leave has not
 been returned under subsection (10) of this section. In addition, an
 employee shall not receive a total of more than five hundred twenty-
 two days of leave, except that, a supervisor may authorize leave in
 excess of five hundred twenty-two days in extraordinary circumstances
 for an employee qualifying for the shared leave program because he or
 she is suffering from an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or
 mental condition which is of an extraordinary or severe nature.
 Shared leave received under the uniformed service shared leave pool
 in RCW 41.04.685 is not included in this total.
     (b) An employee receiving industrial insurance wage replacement
 benefits may not receive greater than twenty-five percent of his or
 her base salary from the receipt of shared leave under this section.
     (3) The agency head must allow employees who are veterans, as
 defined under RCW 41.04.005, and their spouses, to access shared
 leave from the veterans' in-state service shared leave pool upon
 employment.
     (4) An employee may transfer annual leave, sick leave, and his or
 her personal holiday, as follows:
     (a) An employee who has an accrued annual leave balance of more
 than ten days may request that the head of the agency for which the
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 employee works transfer a specified amount of annual leave to another
 employee authorized to receive leave under subsection (1) of this
 section. In no event may the employee request a transfer of an amount
 of leave that would result in his or her annual leave account going
 below ten days. For purposes of this subsection (4)(a), annual leave
 does not accrue if the employee receives compensation in lieu of
 accumulating a balance of annual leave.
     (b) An employee may transfer a specified amount of sick leave to
 an employee requesting shared leave only when the donating employee
 retains a minimum of one hundred seventy-six hours of sick leave
 after the transfer.
     (c) An employee may transfer, under the provisions of this
 section relating to the transfer of leave, all or part of his or her
 personal holiday, as that term is defined under RCW 1.16.050, or as
 such holidays are provided to employees by agreement with a school
 district's board of directors if the leave transferred under this
 subsection does not exceed the amount of time provided for personal
 holidays under RCW 1.16.050.
     (5) An employee of an institution of higher education under RCW
 28B.10.016, school district, or educational service district who does
 not accrue annual leave but does accrue sick leave and who has an
 accrued sick leave balance of more than twenty-two days may request
 that the head of the agency for which the employee works transfer a
 specified amount of sick leave to another employee authorized to
 receive leave under subsection (1) of this section. In no event may
 such an employee request a transfer that would result in his or her
 sick leave account going below twenty-two days. Transfers of sick
 leave under this subsection are limited to transfers from employees
 who do not accrue annual leave. Under this subsection, "sick leave"
 also includes leave accrued pursuant to RCW 28A.400.300(1)(b) or
 28A.310.240(1)   with   compensation   for    illness,   injury,   and
 emergencies.
     (6) Transfers of leave made by an agency head under subsections
 (4) and (5) of this section shall not exceed the requested amount.
     (7) Leave transferred under this section may be transferred from
 employees of one agency to an employee of the same agency or, with
 the approval of the heads of both agencies, to an employee of another
 state agency.
     (8) While an employee is on leave transferred under this section,
 he or she shall continue to be classified as a state employee and
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 shall receive the same treatment in respect to salary, wages, and
 employee benefits as the employee would normally receive if using
 accrued annual leave or sick leave.
     (a) All salary and wage payments made to employees while on leave
 transferred under this section shall be made by the agency employing
 the person receiving the leave. The value of leave transferred shall
 be based upon the leave value of the person receiving the leave.
     (b) In the case of leave transferred by an employee of one agency
 to an employee of another agency, the agencies involved shall arrange
 for the transfer of funds and credit for the appropriate value of
 leave.
     (i) Pursuant to rules adopted by the office of financial
 management, funds shall not be transferred under this section if the
 transfer would violate any constitutional or statutory restrictions
 on the funds being transferred.
     (ii) The office of financial management may adjust the
 appropriation authority of an agency receiving funds under this
 section only if and to the extent that the agency's existing
 appropriation authority would prevent it from expending the funds
 received.
     (iii) Where any questions arise in the transfer of funds or the
 adjustment of appropriation authority, the director of financial
 management shall determine the appropriate transfer or adjustment.
     (9) Leave transferred under this section shall not be used in any
 calculation to determine an agency's allocation of full time
 equivalent staff positions.
     (10)(a) The value of any leave transferred under this section
 which remains unused shall be returned at its original value to the
 employee or employees who transferred the leave when the agency head
 finds that the leave is no longer needed or will not be needed at a
 future time in connection with the illness or injury for which the
 leave was transferred or for any other qualifying condition. Unused
 shared leave may not be returned until one of the following occurs:
     (i) The agency head receives from the affected employee a
 statement from the employee's doctor verifying that the illness or
 injury is resolved; or
     (ii) The employee is released to full-time employment; has not
 received additional medical treatment for his or her current
 condition or any other qualifying condition for at least six months;
 and the employee's doctor has declined, in writing, the employee's
                                     p. 5                          SB 6124
 request for a statement indicating the employee's condition has been
 resolved.
     (b) If a shared leave account is closed and an employee later has
 a need to use shared leave due to the same condition listed in the
 closed account, the agency head must approve a new shared leave
 request for the employee.
     (c) To the extent administratively feasible, the value of unused
 leave which was transferred by more than one employee shall be
 returned on a pro rata basis.
     (11) An employee who uses leave that is transferred to him or her
 under this section may not be required to repay the value of the
 leave that he or she used.
     (12) The director of financial management may adopt rules as
 necessary to implement subsection (2) of this section.
     (13) For the purposes of this section, "shortly deplete" means
 that the employee will have forty hours or less of the applicable
 leave types under subsection (1)(d) of this section. However, the
 employee is not required to deplete all of the employee's leave and
 can maintain up to forty hours of the applicable leave types in
 reserve.
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Statutes affected: 
Original Bill: 41.04.665