No public employer, or other person, shall directly or indirectly, interfere with, restrain, coerce, or discriminate against any public employee or group of public employees in the free exercise of their right to organize and designate representatives of their own choosing for the purpose of collective bargaining, or in the free exercise of any other right under this chapter.
RCW 41.56.040
Right of employees to organize and designate representatives without interference.
Known as the Public Employees' Collective Bargaining Act
The act spans §§ 41–41 (62 sections).
Applied in 21 court decisions — leading case 120 Wash. 2d 394 - Shoreline Community College District No. 7 v. Employment Security Department (1993)
Most recently applied in 198 Wash. App. 745 - SEIU 775 v. Department of Social & Health Services (April 2017)
1967 ex.s. c 108 s 4.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.