Washington State
House of Representatives
Office of Program Research
BILL
ANALYSIS
Labor & Workplace Standards Committee
HB 1622
Brief Description: Allowing bargaining over matters related to the use of artificial intelligence.
Sponsors: Representatives Parshley, Doglio, Fosse, Ramel, Ortiz-Self, Bergquist, Couture, Timmons, Obras, Reed, Bronoske, Bernbaum, Low, Nance, Schmidt, Simmons, Cortes, Stonier, Farivar, Scott, Peterson, Macri, Paul, Mena, Tharinger, Stearns, Berry, Donaghy, Gregerson, Taylor, Goodman, Hill, Kloba, Fitzgibbon, Salahuddin, Caldier, Thai, Fey, Davis, Shavers, Santos, Hunt, Griffey, Richards, Duerr, Zahn and Thomas.
Brief Summary of Bill
  • Requires most state and local government public employers to bargain with employees' unions over the use of artificial technology that affects the wages, hours, or terms and conditions of employment.
Hearing Date: 2/5/25
Staff: Benjamin McCarthy (786-7116).
Background:

The Personnel System Reform Act (PSRA) provides a collective bargaining framework for civil service employees working for state agencies and institutions of high learning.? Similarly, the Public Employees' Collective Bargaining Act provides a collective bargaining framework for public employees of cities, counties, and municipal corporations, uniformed troopers of the Washington State Patrol, uniformed officers of the Department of Fish and Wildlife, and certain employees at institutions of higher learning who are not covered by civil service laws.

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Employers and employees must bargain over mandatory subjects of bargaining?these are subjects that bears on the wages, hours, and working conditions of employees.? The parties do not have to bargain over managerial or union prerogatives, which are subjects that lie at the core of entrepreneurial or union control.? When determining whether a subject is a mandatory subject of bargaining or a managerial or union prerogative, the Public Employment Relations Commission focuses on whether the subject predominately affects wages, hours, and working conditions of employees or predominately affects something that lies at the core of entrepreneurial or union control.

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In addition to mandatory subjects of bargaining, managerial prerogatives, and union prerogatives, there are also prohibited subjects of bargaining.? Prohibited subjects of bargaining are subjects that the parties are forbidden to bargain over by law.? State employers covered by the PSRA are forbidden from bargaining over certain rights of management, including the use of technology.
Summary of Bill:

Public employers covered by the Personnel System Reform Act, or the Public Employees' Collective Bargaining Act must bargain with covered employees over the decision to adopt or modify the use of artificial technology if it affects employee's wages, hours, or other terms and conditions of employment.? Such technology is exempt from the bargaining prohibition regarding use of technology.? Artificial intelligence means the use of machine learning and related technology that use data to train statistical models for the purpose of enabling computer systems to perform tasks normally associated with human intelligence or perception.
Appropriation: None.
Fiscal Note: Requested on January 30, 2025.
Effective Date: The bill takes effect 90 days after adjournment of the session in which the bill is passed.