A bill clarifying the grievance arbitration procedures for law enforcement is seeing action this week. It makes technical changes to the procedures that were adopted in 2021.

SB 5473 is sponsored by Sen. Steve Conway (D–Tacoma) at the request of AWC. It makes two main technical clarifications to the law enforcement arbitration procedures included in the Public Employees’ Collective Bargaining Act (PECBA). The first is it clarifies the definition of “grievance arbitration” to include only those grievance procedures that are requested in line with the procedures established in the collective bargaining agreement (CBA). The second change eliminates the limit that  no more than three arbitrators on the law enforcement grievance arbitration roster can have their terms expire in the same year.

The bill modifies a procedure that AWC supported in 2021. Under that law, the Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) establishes a roster of arbitrators to hear police discipline disputes, to which cases are assigned automatically – eliminating the need for police departments and unions to agree on a private arbitrator. SB 5473 makes it clear that the process to request a grievance procedure must follow the agreed to procedures in the CBA. It also makes the maintenance of the roster more straightforward, considering that arbitrators on the roster serve three-year terms and many were added to the roster at the same time after the original bill passed.

Dates to remember

SB 5473 is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Labor & Commerce Committee on February 11 at 10:30 am, and for a committee vote on February 14 at 8 am.