wa-law.org > bill > 2023-24 > HB 1187 > Substitute Bill

HB 1187 - Employee-union privilege ¶

Section 1 ¶

The legislature finds that:

Labor unions have fiduciary duties to act on behalf of the employees they represent in regard to employment relations with public-sector and private-sector employers, including personnel matters, grievances, labor disputes, wages, rates of pay, hours of employment, conditions of work, and collective bargaining.
The discharge of those duties fosters industrial peace, human dignity, and the continued improvement of the employment relationship, with benefits to employees, employers, and the general public.
The effective discharge of those duties depends on employees' confidence that their confidential communications with their union representatives in the course of union representation will be protected against disclosure, and that unions' internal deliberations concerning their representational duties be protected against disclosure so that unions may engage in the balancing that is necessary to carry out their duty to all members.
To effectuate the public policy favoring effective collective bargaining, it is necessary to protect confidential union–employee communications in the course of union representation against disclosure, except in the rare circumstances where disclosure appears necessary to prevent injury from a crime or when legal claims are brought in formal proceedings against unions. The creation of a union–employee privilege is accordingly in the best interests of the state of Washington.

Section 2 ¶

(1) A spouse or domestic partner shall not be examined for or against his or her spouse or domestic partner, without the consent of the spouse or domestic partner; nor can either during marriage or during the domestic partnership or afterward, be without the consent of the other, examined as to any communication made by one to the other during the marriage or the domestic partnership. But this exception shall not apply to a civil action or proceeding by one against the other, nor to a criminal action or proceeding for a crime committed by one against the other, nor to a criminal action or proceeding against a spouse or domestic partner if the marriage or the domestic partnership occurred subsequent to the filing of formal charges against the defendant, nor to a criminal action or proceeding for a crime committed by said spouse or domestic partner against any child of whom said spouse or domestic partner is the parent or guardian, nor to a proceeding under chapter 71.05 or 71.09 RCW: PROVIDED, That the spouse or the domestic partner of a person sought to be detained under chapter 71.05 or 71.09 RCW may not be compelled to testify and shall be so informed by the court prior to being called as a witness.