PSRA - Personnel System Reform Act

personnel system
reform act

The Personnel System Reform Act of 2002 (PSRA) changed just about every facet of the state’s personnel system, and state employees are impacted in a number of ways:

Collective Bargaining

Expands bargaining to ‘full scope’ – wages, benefits, and working conditions.
Each union will negotiate a Master Contract with the State of Washington covering all its bargaining units (though each college may opt to negotiate on its own).
WPEA’s existing bargaining units are continued and recognized for bargaining.
Union shops are bargainable in Master Contracts.
Discipline handled in grievance arbitration.

Civil Service Changes

Review of state’s 3,000+ job classifications.
Department of Personnel (DOP) Director gets Civil Service rule making authority from Personnel Resources Board.
DOP Director establishes Rules for unrepresented employees (union CBAs trump most of Director Rules).
Labor relations administration and enforcement transferred from DOP to Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC).
The Personnel Resources Board (PRB) and Personnel Appeal Board (PAB) is abolished as the body that hears discipline appeals for unrepresented employees.

Contracting Out

Mandatory subject of bargaining with union – protections and impacts to employees.
Agency or college must determine that a contract will result in savings or efficiencies.
Competitive bidding is required by contractors and employees have right to offer alternatives.
Employees may also offer bids and Department of Personnel/General Administration must train employees to do so.
The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC) will conduct a performance audit of any contracting out with a report by January 1, 2007.

Changes in Rules

Since the PSRA took effect in June 2002, there has been a flurry of rule and statutory changes. Below is a review of these changes and guidance about where to find the current, up-to-date law.

Revised Code of Washington

The PSRA itself has now been codified in two chapters of the Revised Code of Washington (RCW). The amendments to the civil service law are still found in Chapter 41.06 RCW, including the changes to the civil service that will be going into effect between now and 2006. These include:

-- Provisions Granting the Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) immediate jurisdiction over unit certifications, elections and Unfair Labor Practices effective June 13, 2002. (RCW 41.06.340)

-- Requirement that Personnel Resources Board conduct a comprehensive rule and class plan review by July 1, 2003 (RCW 41.06.136)

-- New authority of the Personnel Director to adopt civil service rules after July 1, 2004. (RCW 41.06.150)

-- New provisions on contracting out that will go into effect on July 1, 2005. (RCW 41.06.142)

-- Abolishment of the Personnel Appeals Board in 2006.
(RCW 41.06.111)

The collective bargaining provisions of the PSRA implementing expanded state employee bargaining are now found in a new chapter, Chapter 41.80 RCW. Generally, these provisions take effect on July 1, 2004. These provisions include:

Definitions, including the definition of supervisor (effective June 13, 2002) . (RCW 41.80.005)
Negotiation and ratification of collective bargaining agreements. (RCW 41.80.010)
Scope of bargaining and contents of collective bargaining agreements. (RCW 41.80.020 & RCW 41.80.030)
Dispute resolution where the parties file to reach agreement. (RCW 41.80.090)
Strikes (RCW 41.80.060)
Employee Rights (RCW 41.80.050)
Management Rights (RCW 41.80.040)
Union dues, fees and union security (RCW 41.80.100)
Unfair labor practices and procedures (RCW 41.80.110 - .120)
Enforcement of contracts and arbitration (RCW 41.80.130)

Under these changes, the Personnel Resources Board (PRB) still has jurisdiction over most civil service issues until July 1, 2002. However, some (but not all) of the labor relations functions historically governed by the PRB have been moved to the Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC). Effective June 13, 2002, PERC took jurisdiction of issues relating to the creation or modification of bargaining units, certification of exclusive bargaining representatives and unfair labor practices. The PRB continues to retain jurisdiction over the content and bargaining of collective bargaining agreements, impasse arbitration, grievance arbitration and union shop elections.

PERC Statutes & Rules

Through amendment of RCW 41.06.340, classified employees are now under the jurisdiction of PERC and the Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act (PECBA), the same law that covers county and city employees. The main statutes are:

Chapter 41.56 RCW Public Employees Collective Bargaining
Chapter 41.58 RCW Public Employment Labor Relations

In order to implement these changes, PERC has adopted a series of emergency amendments to the PERC rules. These amendments will remain in effect through the end of the year, and permanent rules were adopted in January 2003.

PERC’s rules and the amendments applicable to state employees can be found at the PERC web site at http://www.perc.wa.gov/ . PERC Rules are found in the Washington Administrative Code (WAC) at Chapter 391 WAC. PERC has adopted emergency amendments making these rules generally applicable to state employees, with a few specific differences.

DOP Rules

Labor relations rules relating to classified Higher Education Personnel are found in Chapter 251-14 WAC and Labor relations rules relating to classified General Government employees are found in Chapter 356-42 WAC.Prior to the effective date of the PSRA, the Personnel Resources Board repealed many of its long-standing rules covering creation of bargaining units, certification and decertification of exclusive representatives and unfair labor practices. This entailed substantial changes to both the Higher Education Personnel Rules and the Merit System Rules.

The rules as they now exist can be found in the Human Resources Desk Reference at the Department of Personnel's web site at http://www.dop.wa.gov/Rules/

The current rules as amended continue to cover the following subjects:

Membership in employee organizations (WAC 251-14-020; WAC 356-42-010)

Union Shop Requirements (WAC 251-14-058; WAC 356-42-043)

Union Shop elections (WAC 251-14-052, WAC 251-14-054; WAC 356-42-042, WAC 356-42-045)

Contents of Written agreements (WAC 251-14-060; WAC 356-42-050)

Grievance Mediation and Arbitration (WAC 251-14-120 - .130; WAC 356-42-055)

Collective Bargaining Impasse Mediation and Arbitration (WAC 251-14-100 -.110; WAC 356-42-090 -.100)

DOP Class Consolidation Project in Fourth and Final Phase

The Washington State Legislature passed the Personnel System Reform Act (PSRA) in 2002 that significantly changed the state’s civil service system, including the job classification system. The PSRA called for a substantial reduction in the number of job classifications and a more responsive, streamlined classification system that would facilitate the effective use of state personnel resources and enhance career mobility and advancement.

The new structure consolidates similar classes and class series into broad occupational categories. The categories are comprised of four levels – entry, journey, senior/lead, and expert/supervisory. Each level within the category is considered a separate class with a separate title and salary, and a different level of work performed.

Due to the scope and extent of the changes involved in implementing all of the personnel reform initiatives at once, affected employers requested that changes to the classification plan be phased in over time in order to lessen the initial impact on the employers’ staff and organization.

Phases 1-3 have been completed, and DOP just finalized phase 4. The list of consolidated groups can be found by clicking here.

DOP staff re-evaluated a number of the very broad occupational categories that were originally included in this group. As a result of this review, not all classifications initially designated will be consolidated. Instead, they have focused on developing a single classification plan for higher education and general government positions. In order to accomplish this, staff developed a new consolidation plan that merges common classes, eliminates duplicate class series, and combines similar classes within and between systems.

Classes that are not proposed for consolidation will generally remain unchanged, except for general revisions to ensure consistency with related classes (e.g. some, but not all, positions in a series may be proposed for merger; title changes may be needed for other classes in the series). All class codes will be revised as necessary to reflect the new classification plan. DOP anticipates using the same numbering system as used for previously merged classes (three numbers and a letter – e.g. 479L).

Additionally, they reviewed the class structure itself, and determined DOP will not limit class series to four levels based on level of responsibility (entry, journey, specialist/lead, supervisor/expert). Instead, they will take into consideration other classification factors that may warrant a separate class level.

The consolidation is planned for implementation July 1, 2007, depending on legislative funding. DOP staff will draft initial specifications and provide opportunity for agency and employee representatives to comment on the proposals. They anticipate this will occur in January/February.