Meaningful and effective involvement of employees and their representatives is essential to the efficient and effective delivery of state government services. To accomplish this, agencies shall use joint employee-management committees to collaborate on the desired goals of streamlined organizational structures, continuous improvement in all systems and processes, empowerment of line level employees to solve workplace and system delivery problems, managers functioning as coaches and facilitators, and employee training and development as an investment in the future. If employees are represented by an exclusive bargaining representative, the representative shall select the employee committee members and also be on the committee. In addition, the committees shall be used for improvement of the quality of work life for state employees resulting in more productive and efficient service delivery to the general public and customers of state government. Nothing in this section supplants any collective bargaining process or provision.

Effective date—1993 c 281: See note following RCW 41.06.022.