Washington Administrative Code

An employee who is approved to receive partial wage replacement for paid family and/or medical leave under Title 50A RCW may choose to receive partial wage replacement for paid family and/or medical leave exclusively, use accrued paid leave exclusively, or combine the partial wag…

An employee may use vacation leave, sick leave, personal holiday, compensatory time, holiday credit, recognition leave, bereavement leave, or holiday pay during a period when the employee is receiving partial wage replacement under Title 50A RCW as a supplemental benefit. The use…

A higher education employer may deny an employee's request to use accrued leave in accordance with WAC 357-31-248 as a supplemental benefit during a period when the employee is receiving partial wage replacement for paid family and/or medical leave under Title 50A RCW from May 1,…

(1) If an employee's family member or household member dies, or for loss of pregnancy, the employee is entitled to five days of paid bereavement leave. An employee may request less than five days of paid bereavement leave.(2) In accordance with the employer's leave policy, the em…

When the employer determines inclement weather conditions exist, the employer's leave policy governs the order in which accrued leave, compensatory time, and holiday credit may be used to account for the time an employee is absent from work due to the inclement weather. The emplo…

When it is determined that public safety, health, or property is jeopardized due to emergency conditions, the agency head or institution president may suspend operations for the entire agency, higher education institution, related board, or any portion of the organization, in acc…

At a minimum, employees not required to work during suspended operations must be allowed to use their personal holiday, accrued holiday credit, or accrued vacation leave. Overtime eligible employees must also be allowed to use accrued compensatory time to account for the time los…

Employees required to work during the closure must receive their regular rate of pay for work performed during the period of suspended operations. Overtime worked during the closure must be compensated in accordance with chapter 357-28 WAC. The employer may petition the director …

Each employer must develop a suspended operations procedure. The procedure must at a minimum address all of the following:(1) How employees will be notified of suspended operations.(2) What happens when prior notification has not been given and employees are released until furthe…

The period of suspended operations must not exceed fifteen calendar days without director approval.[Statutory Authority: Chapter 41.06 RCW. WSR 05-08-137, § 357-31-280, filed 4/6/05, effective 7/1/05.]

Absence because of an employee's inability to report for or continue scheduled work due to a family care emergency:(1) Must be authorized for care of the employee's spouse, registered domestic partner, household member or the employee's/spouse's/registered domestic partner's mino…

The employer's leave policy must define what qualifies as a family care emergency. At a minimum, the employer's definition must include:(1) Minor/dependent child care emergencies such as unexpected absence of regular care provider, unexpected closure of child's school, or unexpec…

(1) After an employee has used all accrued compensatory time and accrued holiday credit, the employee may choose any of the following leave categories to use to account for time away from work for family care emergencies:(a) Vacation leave.(b) Sick leave in accordance with WAC 35…

(1) For purposes of family care emergencies, each calendar year an employee must be allowed to use up to three work days of:(a) Vacation leave,(b) Sick leave, and(c) Leave without pay.(2) At the employer's discretion, additional leave in excess of three days for each category of …

No advance approval is required for an employee to take time off for a family care emergency; however, the employee must notify the employer at the beginning of the absence. In accordance with the employer's leave policy, the employee may be required to provide verification of th…

The employer must grant a leave of absence with pay when an employee is required to report for jury duty service. Employers may require documentation or verification of jury service.[Statutory Authority: Chapter 41.06 RCW. WSR 05-08-138, § 357-31-310, filed 4/6/05, effective 7/1/…

Employees are allowed to keep any compensation they receive for serving as a member of a jury in addition to their regular pay.[Statutory Authority: Chapter 41.06 RCW. WSR 05-08-138, § 357-31-315, filed 4/6/05, effective 7/1/05.]

The employer must grant a leave of absence with pay for the employee to respond to a subpoena when:(1) The employee has been subpoenaed on the employer's behalf; or(2) The subpoena is for a legal proceeding which is unrelated to the personal or financial matters of the employee.[…

Leave with pay must be granted to an employee in accordance with WAC 357-31-320 and for the following reasons:(1) To allow an employee to receive assessment from the employee assistance program.(2) When an employee is scheduled to take an examination or participate in an intervie…

(1) A general government employer may grant leave with pay for an employee to perform civil duties as a volunteer including, but not limited to, firefighting, search and rescue efforts, or donating blood. Leave granted to participate in blood and plasma donations must not exceed …

An employer must grant leave without pay under the following conditions:(1) When an employee who is a volunteer firefighter is called to duty to respond to a fire, natural disaster, or medical emergency;(2) If the employee or the employee's family member as defined in chapter 357…

Leave without pay may be allowed for any of the following reasons in accordance with the employer's leave policy:(1) For any reason leave with pay may be granted, as long as the conditions for leave with pay are met;(2) Educational leave;(3) Leave for government service in the pu…

The employer determines the length of time an employee may remain on leave without pay. The employer's leave policy must address any limitations on the length of time for which leave without pay will be approved. When an employee has been approved to receive benefits for approved…

Employees returning from authorized leave without pay must be employed in the same position or a similar position in the same class and in the same geographical area, provided that such return to employment is not in conflict with rules relating to layoff.[Statutory Authority: RC…

In accordance with WAC 357-46-053, each higher education employer's layoff procedure defines how seniority is determined including any adjustments made for periods of leave without pay. As provided by WAC 357-19-297, scheduled cyclic leave without pay for an employee in cyclic ye…

WAC 357-46-055 describes how leave without pay affects a general government employee's seniority date.[Statutory Authority: Chapter 41.06 RCW. WSR 05-08-138, § 357-31-350, filed 4/6/05, effective 7/1/05.]

If an employee uses leave without pay for an entire workshift while serving a probationary period, trial service period or transition review period, the probationary period, trial service period or transition review period is extended by one work day for each workshift of leave w…

The six-year time period used to qualify for step M will not be extended for periods of leave without pay.[Statutory Authority: Chapter 41.06 RCW. WSR 13-23-036, § 357-31-357, filed 11/14/13, effective 12/16/13.]

(1) Employees must be granted military leave with pay not to exceed twenty-one working days during each year, beginning October 1st and ending the following September 30th, in order to report for required military duty, training duty in the Washington National Guard or the Army, …

(1) Employees must be granted a military leave of absence without pay for service in the uniformed services of the United States or the state, and to reinstatement as provided in chapter 73.16 RCW.(2) No adjustments are made to the seniority date, anniversary date, unbroken servi…

(1) During a period of military conflict, an employee who is a spouse or registered domestic partner of a member of the armed forces of the United States, National Guard, or reserves who has been notified of an impending call or order to active duty or has been deployed is entitl…

An employer must grant a temporary leave of absence for:(1) Service in an elective office without loss of job status or seniority to an employee by reason of having been elected or appointed to an elective office in accordance with RCW 41.04.120.(2) Legislative service without lo…

When an employee is granted a temporary leave of absence for service in an elective office or for legislative service during a probationary period, trial service period, or transition review period, the employer must suspend the employee's probationary period, trial service perio…

(1) Employers may provide a medical expense plan to eligible employees that provides for reimbursement of medical expenses. Instead of cash out of sick leave at retirement as provided in WAC 357-31-150(2), employers may deposit equivalent funds in a medical expense plan for eligi…

The purpose of the state leave sharing program is to permit state employees, at no significantly increased cost to the state for providing leave, to come to the aid of another state employee who is likely to take leave without pay or terminate employment.[Statutory Authority: Cha…

An employee may be eligible to receive shared leave if the agency head or higher education institution president has determined the employee meets the following criteria:(1) The employee:(a) Suffers from, or has a relative or household member suffering from, an illness, injury, i…

The following definitions apply to shared leave as defined in RCW 41.04.655:(1) "Employee" means any employee of the state, including employees of school districts and educational service districts, who are entitled to accrue sick leave or vacation leave and for whom accurate lea…

(1) The employer determines the amount of leave, if any, which an employee may receive under these rules. However, an employee must not receive more than five hundred twenty-two days of shared leave during total state employment. An employer may authorize leave in excess of five …

An employer may not prevent an employee from using shared leave intermittently or on nonconsecutive days so long as the leave has not been returned under WAC 357-31-445.[Statutory Authority: Chapter 41.06 RCW and RCW 41.04.655. WSR 20-24-017, § 357-31-403, filed 11/20/20, effecti…

An employee may be required to submit the following documentation before the employer approves or disapproves the employee's request for shared leave:(1) For employees seeking shared leave under WAC 357-31-390 (1)(a), the employer may require the employee to submit a medical cert…

Leave donated under the civil service rules and shared leave statutes may be transferred from employees of one employer to an employee of the same employer or, with the approval of the heads of both employers, to an employee of another state employer, educational service district…

Vacation leave, sick leave, or all or part of a personal holiday transferred from a donating employee under these rules must be used solely for the purpose stated in WAC 357-31-390.[Statutory Authority: Chapter 43.01 RCW. WSR 18-17-130, § 357-31-415, filed 8/20/18, effective 9/21…

The receiving employee is paid the employee's regular rate of pay. Therefore, the value of one hour of shared leave may cover more or less than one hour of the recipient's salary.[Statutory Authority: RCW 41.06.133. WSR 26-08-085, s 357-31-420, filed 3/31/26, effective 5/1/26. St…

An employee may donate vacation leave, sick leave, or all or part of a personal holiday to another employee for purposes of the state leave sharing program under the following conditions:(1) Vacation leave: The donating employee's employer approves the employee's request to donat…

The calculation of the recipient's leave value must be in accordance with applicable office of financial management policies, regulations, and procedures. The dollar value of the leave is converted from the donor to the recipient. The leave received is coded as shared leave and i…

(1) Employees who qualify for shared leave under WAC 357-31-390 (1)(a) must first use all compensatory time, recognition leave as described in WAC 357-31-565, personal holiday and holiday credit that they have accrued before using shared leave. The employee is not required to dep…

An employee using shared leave under these rules continues to be classified as a state employee and receives the same treatment in respect to salary, wages, and employee benefits as the employee would normally receive if using accrued vacation leave or sick leave.Employees who, d…

(1) Any shared leave not used by the recipient during each incident/occurrence, as determined by the employer, must be returned to the donor(s).(a) If shared leave has been granted to an employee who suffers from an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition whi…

An agency head or higher education institution president must approve a shared leave request for an employee:(1) If a shared leave account is closed and an employee later has a need to use shared leave due to the same condition listed in the closed account and the employee is emp…

An employee who uses leave that is donated under the state leave sharing program is not required to repay the value of the leave that the employee used.[Statutory Authority: RCW 41.06.133. WSR 26-08-085, s 357-31-450, filed 3/31/26, effective 5/1/26. Statutory Authority: Chapter …