Bill Summary – FastDemocracy

H-2974.1
                           SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 2283
     State of Washington         68th Legislature       2024 Regular Session
     By House State Government & Tribal Relations (originally sponsored by
     Representatives Volz, Rule, Senn, Davis, Ramel, Bronoske, Low,
     Schmidt, Doglio, Ormsby, Riccelli, Chapman, and Timmons)
     READ FIRST TIME 01/31/24.
      AN ACT Relating to allowing state employees living in an
  emergency or disaster area to receive shared leave; and adding a new
  section to chapter 41.04 RCW.
  BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
     NEW SECTION.   Sec. 1.   A new section is added to chapter 41.04
 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) The major disaster shared leave pool is created to allow
 employees to donate leave to be used as shared leave for any employee
 who is adversely affected by a major disaster. For purposes of this
 section, "adversely affected" means the major disaster has caused
 severe hardship to the employee or a family member of the employee
 that requires the employee to be absent from work.
     (2) Participation in the pool shall, at all times, be voluntary
 on the part of the employee. The military department, in consultation
 with the office of financial management, shall administer the major
 disaster shared leave pool. Employees may donate leave only to the
 pool and not to a specific leave recipient.
     (3) Leave deposited on account of one major disaster may be used
 only for employees affected by that major disaster. Except for an
 amount so small as to make accounting for it unreasonable or
 administratively impracticable, any leave deposited to the major
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 disaster shared leave pool that is not used by leave recipients by
 the end of the period specified in subsection (4) of this section
 must be returned within a reasonable period of time to any leave
 donors who are still employed by the employer so that the donor will
 be able to use the leave. The amount of leave returned to each leave
 donor must be in the same proportion as the amount of leave donated
 by the leave donor bears to the total amount of leave donated on
 account of that major disaster. Each leave recipient must use this
 leave for purposes related to the major disaster.
     (4) Agency heads must make a reasonable determination based on
 the severity of the disaster: (a) Whether and how much donated leave
 each approved recipient may receive; and (b) the period of time for
 which donated leave may be accepted for distribution to approved
 emergency leave recipients, and during which a leave recipient must
 use the leave received from the leave bank.
     (5) Employees who are eligible to donate leave under RCW
 41.04.665 may donate leave to the major disaster shared leave pool.
     (6) An employee as defined in RCW 41.04.655 who has been
 adversely affected by a major disaster may request shared leave from
 the major disaster shared leave pool.
     (7) Shared leave under this section may not be granted unless the
 pool has a sufficient balance to fund the requested shared leave for
 the expected term of service.
     (8) Shared leave paid under this section must not exceed the
 level of the employee's state monthly salary.
     (9) The amount of leave donated by an employee during a calendar
 year may not exceed the maximum amount of leave accrued by the
 donating employee during that year.
     (10) Any leave donated must be removed from the personally
 accumulated leave balance of the employee donating the leave.
     (11) An employee who receives shared leave from the pool is not
 required to recontribute such leave to the pool, except as otherwise
 provided in this section.
     (12) Leave that may be donated or received by any one employee
 shall be calculated as in RCW 41.04.665.
     (13) As used in this section:
     (a) "Employee" has the meaning provided in RCW 41.04.655, except
 that "employee" as used in this section does not include employees of
 school districts and educational service districts.
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     (b) "Major disaster" means: (i) A major disaster as declared by
 the president under section 401 of the Stafford act, 42 U.S.C. Sec.
 5170, that warrants individual assistance or individual and public
 assistance from the federal government under that act; or (ii) a
 major disaster or emergency as declared by the president pursuant to
 5 U.S.C. Sec. 6391, in the case of employees described in that
 statute.
     (c) "Monthly salary" includes monthly salary and special pay and
 shift differential, or the monthly equivalent for hourly employees.
 "Monthly salary" does not include:
     (i) Overtime pay;
     (ii) Call back pay;
     (iii) Standby pay; or
     (iv) Performance bonuses.
     (14) The office of financial management, in consultation with the
 military department, shall adopt rules and policies governing the
 donation and use of shared leave from the major disaster shared leave
 pool, including definitions of pay and allowances and guidelines for
 agencies to use in recordkeeping concerning shared leave.
     (15) Agencies must investigate any alleged abuse of the major
 disaster shared leave pool and on a finding of wrongdoing, the
 employee may be required to repay all of the shared leave received
 from the major disaster shared leave pool.
     (16)   Higher   education  institutions   shall   adopt  policies
 consistent with the needs of the employees under their respective
 jurisdictions.
                                  --- END ---
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Statutes affected: 
Original Bill: 41.04.665