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County of King v. Washington State Public Employment Relations Commission3/1/1999
When the Director of the King County Jail ordered nurses at the jail to stop covering their surnames on their identification badges, the Washington State Nurses Association ("WSNA") filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the Public Employment Relations Commission ("PERC"), alleging that the jail had failed to bargain with the nurses as required by the Public Employees Collective Bargaining Act. Both PERC and the trial court agreed with WSNA that the jail was required to bargain over the issue. The jail appeals, alleging that its identification policy is not a mandatory bargaining subject and that the agency's factual findings are unsupported by the record. Because the nurses' legitimate safety concerns are more significant than the jail's interest in the method it uses to identify employees, the jail must bargain over the issue. We therefore affirm the trial court and PERC.
FACTS
The King County jail is operated through the County's Department of Adult Detention ("DAD"), which Arthur Wallenstein has directed since August 1990. Health services to the jail's approximately 1,700 inmates are provided through a contract between DAD and the Seattle-King County Department of Public Health. Nearly 700 people are employed in the jail facility, and for many years, DAD has required that these employees wear identification badges. In 1992, Director Wallenstein issued a directive stating that he and a number of employees had not been wearing their identification badges while at work in the jail. He asserted that this practice compromised jail safety and security and directed that all employees must exhibit an identification badge to enter and leave the jail.
Toward the end of 1994, several corrections officers informed Wallenstein that some nurses were covering the last names on their identification badges with tape or decals. Wallenstein understood that the nurses did this to prevent inmates from knowing their full names. With the assistance of Barbara Hadley, Administrator of the Jail Health Services Section of the Department of Public Health, he conducted an investigation. After discussing the matter with other correctional facility administrators from around the country, Wallenstein concluded that because the badge policy was directly related to fundamental security and safety operations at the jail, it should remain in effect. He then issued a second memorandum to all DAD employees, entitled "Restatement of Policy Regarding DAD ID Cards," which directed the employees to wear "unadulterated" name badges at all times while in the secured facility:
"I want to ensure that all DAD staff both know and observe our agency policy on ID cards. Our ID cards serve several purposes:
"they ensure that we know who staff members are and that we are easily and immediately identifiable by anyone in our facility; they ensure that all who serve the public can be identified by the inmate population as we provide direct services to that group and nothing in our work or policies suggests a policy of secretiveness or fear of name recognition; and, lastly, the ID card serves to distinguish employees from visitors and nonpermanent or perdiem {sic} persons who might enter our facilities.
"Our policy has never changed and neither myself nor any other senior staff member has altered any policy covering the proper wearing of ID cards.
"All DAD staff are to wear these cards or their name badge (uniformed staff) in full open view and no portion of the first name, last name, or photograph is to be obscured from full public view . . . . . .I have never known nor worked in a correctional facility where any employee obstructed staff, public or inmate o
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