Many of the bills that passed in the 2025 legislative session go into effect this month, including many of the bills in the HR and labor relations realm. Here, we’ve highlighted a few of the HR bills that cities will need to take into account going forward.

Providing personnel records (HB 1308)

Starting July 27, cities will be required to provide personnel records to employees, former employees, or their designee upon request. Under the bill, cities are required to handle such requests using the procedures and requirements (including deadlines) set forth in the Public Records Act. The bill also clarifies the list of records that are considered part of the “personnel file” under the existing law, though it does not create any new records retention requirements.

Grievance arbitration settlements (SB 5503)

One provision of SB 5503 basically prohibits grievance arbitration settlements from waiving an employee’s right to a future suit in state or federal court. As AWC repeatedly noted during the 2025 session, this provision is a disincentive for cities to settle grievance disputes since the settlement may not actually end a given dispute, just delay or shift it to a different venue. Cities should remember this new restriction on grievance settlements going forward. The bill goes into effect July 27.

Surety for decertified self-insured employers (HB 1275)

A follow up bill to the “good faith and fair dealing” legislation passed in 2023, HB 1275 gives the Department of Labor & Industries broad rulemaking authority related to employers decertified for self-insurance for workers’ compensation. Under the 2023 legislation, employers can be decertified as a self-insurer if they have a certain number of “good faith” violations. The state workers’ compensation plan then takes over. However, the employer remains financially responsible for any outstanding claims. HB 1275 lets L&I can make rules regarding surety requirements for employers if they are decertified from self-insurance under the “good faith” rules. The bill goes into effect on July 27, and L&I has already started a stakeholder process for the rulemaking.

Small city police arbitration (HB 5040)

This bill removes a long-standing provision in state public employee collective bargaining laws that exempted cities with a population under 2,500 from the requirement to allow their local city or town police access to interest arbitration in the event of a collective bargaining impasse. Starting July 27, all cities, regardless of size, will be required to provide their police access to interest arbitration. Around 37 cities and towns in Washington both have their own police department and were under the 2,500 population threshold.