Hello members,

Please see below for information on a recent WaTech Policy involving AI. 

Thanks!

Candace, WAFWP President

Background

On January 30^th, 2024, Governor Inslee issued Executive Order No. 24-01, which acknowledged that “the Washington state workforce is vital to Washington’s continued prosperity and the state seeks to harness the potential of generative AI [GenAI] in an ethical and equitable way for the benefit of the state government workforce.” 

Since then, the agencies identified in the Executive Order have been following through on the direction as outlined, with the goal of creating a transparent and consistent environment to use GenAI technology and to facilitate the adoption of GenAI technology by the State in a manner that balances the benefits and risks to Washingtonians.

Notice

We are providing notice that WaTech will be implementing an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy. This policy will apply to all state agencies and sets requirements for agencies who choose to implement AI enabled technology and/or GenAI into their work. WaTech will submit the policy to the Technology Services Board [TSB] on December 4^th, 2025, and the TSB will vote on it on December 11^th, 2025. Attached is the draft policy for your review.

Before implementation of any new GenAI technologies or policies, agencies will satisfy their individual collective bargaining obligation with impacted unions. Should an agency decide to implement any new AI-enabled technology and/or GenAI consistent with this WaTech policy, the agency will provide six months’ notice to labor organizations if there are impacts to mandatory subjects of bargaining. This six months’ notice is specific for impacts to mandatory subjects that arise from the state’s use of GenAI technology.

If you’d like to bargain over the impacts of this WaTech GenAI policy, please follow the provisions of your individual collective bargaining agreement. Please keep in mind that this policy is subject to layers of review and negotiations will need to be completed before December 4^th, 2025. If multiple unions file demands to bargain regarding this policy, the state will recommend coalition bargaining.

The new Policy can be seen here.