(1) If any portion of a fire protection district is proposed for annexation to or incorporation into a code city, both the fire protection district and the code city shall jointly inform the employees of the fire protection district about hires, separations, terminations, and any other changes in employment that are a direct consequence of annexation or incorporation at the earliest reasonable opportunity.

(2) An eligible employee may transfer into the civil service system of the code city fire department by filing a written request with the code city civil service commission and by giving written notice of the request to the board of commissioners of the fire protection district. Upon receipt of the request by the civil service commission, the transfer of employment must be made. The needed employees shall be taken in order of seniority and the remaining employees who transfer as provided in this section and RCW 35.10.360 and 35.10.370 shall head the list for employment in the civil service system in order of their seniority, to the end that they shall be the first to be reemployed in the code city fire department when appropriate positions become available. Employees who are not immediately hired by the code city shall be placed on a reemployment list for a period not to exceed thirty-six months unless a longer period is authorized by an agreement reached between the collective bargaining representatives of the employees of the annexing and annexed fire agencies and the annexing and annexed fire agencies.

(3)(a) Upon transfer, an employee is entitled to the employee rights, benefits, and privileges to which he or she would have been entitled as an employee of the fire protection district, including rights to:

(i) Compensation at least equal to the level of compensation at the time of transfer, unless the employee's rank and duties have been reduced as a result of the transfer. If the transferring employee is placed in a position with reduced rank and duties, the employee's compensation may be adjusted, but the adjustment may not result in a decrease of greater than fifty percent of the difference between the employee's compensation before the transfer and the compensation level for the position that the employee is transferred to;

(ii) Retirement, vacation, sick leave, and any other accrued benefit;

(iii) Promotion and service time accrual; and

(iv) The length or terms of probationary periods, including no requirement for an additional probationary period if one had been completed before the transfer date.

(b) (a) of this subsection does not apply if upon transfer an agreement for different terms of transfer is reached between the collective bargaining representatives of the transferring employees and the participating fire protection jurisdictions.

(4) If upon transfer, the transferring employee receives the rights, benefits, and privileges established under subsection (3)(a)(i) through (iv) of this section, those rights, benefits, and privileges are subject to collective bargaining at the end of the current bargaining period for the jurisdiction to which the employee has transferred.

(5) Such bargaining must take into account the years of service the transferring employee accumulated before the transfer and must be treated as if those years of service occurred in the jurisdiction to which the employee has transferred.