On April 7, Governor Inslee signed into law the police grievance arbitration reform bill, SB 5055. The bill is one of the first police reforms passed in the 2021 session. We wrote about the Legislature’s final passage of the bill here.

SB 5055 establishes a roster of specialized police grievance arbitrators at the Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) to hear disciplinary grievances for police officers. As of January 1, 2022, all arbitrations that dispute police discipline, discharges, or terminations are required to be heard by one of PERC’s specialized arbitrators. Cases are automatically assigned to the next available specialized arbitrator on PERC’s list, so city police departments and police unions no longer have to agree on a privately retained arbitrator. The bill also requires PERC law enforcement arbitration decisions to be published and available to the public.

The legislation does not require pre-existing collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) that are still in effect after January 1, 2022 to be reopened, so the arbitration procedures in those CBAs can remain in place until the CBA expires or is otherwise reopened. If a pre-existing CBA expires or is renegotiated after that date, the new arbitration procedures in the bill must be included.

At the signing ceremony, the Governor described SB 5055 as an improvement to the way the state arbitrates police disciplinary actions and that the bill would provide more consistent and transparent arbitration decisions. AWC supported the bill as part of our larger police reform agenda.

SB 5055 is effective 90 days after Sine Die, around July 25.