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WPEA General Government (WPEA-GG) Collective Bargaining Agreement - During the 2025-27 successor bargaining, the parties did not reach a tentative agreement. Accordingly, bargaining continued and a tentative agreement was ultimately reached in August 2025. The legislature funded the agreement during the 2026 legislative session.
The tentative agreement provides that any employee being paid on a WPEA-GG salary schedule during fiscal year 2026 (7/1/25 through 6/30/26) will receive retroactive compensation for all time spent on the WPEA-GG salary schedule retroactively effective 7/1/25.
OFM has launched the planning phase for implementing the WPEA-GG agreement. Because this type of implementation has never been done before, it presents significant complexity and requires careful, methodical coordination.
Do not assume your agency is not impacted because you don’t have WPEA-GG represented employees. If you have staff that transferred from another agency where they were in a WPEA-GG represented position – they may see a pay impact.
Retroactive HRMS adjustments apply to WPEA General Government employees only.
- House and Senate are not impacted
- Higher Education does not use HRMS and has different implementation requirements
Below is a complete package outlining agency and OFM action items. Action items include:
- Agency preparation action items
- OFM implementation items
- Agency post-implementation action items
Agency preparation items should begin as soon as possible. The remaining agency action items will not begin until agencies are notified OFM has completed our updates. We anticipate completing our updates by 7/13/26; however, we will send a communication to confirm agencies can move forward with the post-implementation action items.
If you have not already done so, please designate at least one Human Resources representative and one Payroll representative as your Agency WPEA HR & Payroll Points of Contact (POC) for WPEA retro activities. Submit POC information here by 5/22/26.
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AGENCY PREPARATION ACTION ITEMS
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Communication between HR and Payroll will be critical. Consider forming an internal team to coordinate efforts. Agencies should begin addressing these items as soon as possible. As your agency evaluates the impact, be sure to share information with your accounting team so they are aware of the upcoming retroactive changes and expected timing, allowing them to prepare accordingly.
What: Register for one or all WPEA Implementation workshops.
How: Visit the WPEA Implementation Workshops section below for full registration details.
What: Identify impacted employees and positions
How: All general government agencies should review the WPEA Employee & Movement Data spreadsheet for data as of 4/15/26. If an employee was represented by WPEA – GG at any point during fiscal year 2026 (7/1/25 through 6/30/26) they are considered an impacted employee. For agencies with WPEA-GG represented positions, run one of several position reports to identify impacted positions. You can also identify WPEA-GG employees and positions by these Personnel Subarea codes 00PA, 00PB, 00PJ, 00PR, 00PT, 00PU, 00Q2, 00Q4, 00Q5, 00QA, 00QE, 00QH, 00QK, 00QM, 00QO, 00QQ, and 00QZ and WPEA Pay Scale Type 02.
Resources: WPEA Employee & Movement Data Spreadsheet, Movement/Turnover Report, Flexible Employee Data Report, Employee IT8 Basic Pay History Report, Position - Duty Station Reports, Position Cost Distribution 1018 Report
What: Review the list of classification plan changes that occurred 7/1/25 to determine appropriate job class allocations for revised or abolished job classifications.
How: Access the HR Professional Portal and review the 2025-27 Proposed Class Comp Changes document.
- For job classes that will be abolished or had class plan maintenance changes, identify impacted positions and begin making allocation decisions.
- For job classes that will receive a base range increase and/or starting wage increase, identify impacted positions.
Document any required changes and enter or validate them during the Agency Post-Implementation Activities.
Resources: HR Professional Portal
What: Review WPEA salary schedules on the Salary Schedules webpage to determine salary placement, as applicable.
How: For any positions identified above, also identify any impacted employees and begin making salary determination decisions. Use the WPEA salary schedules to help determine salary placement. Be sure to review the attached resources (also on the HR Professional Portal) for class plan changes, salary setting examples, etc. Some positions may require allocation determinations based on the class plan changes. Document any required changes and enter or validate them during the Agency Post-Implementation Activities.
Resources: Salary Schedules webpage, Salary Setting - Base Range Changes July 1, 2025 document, HR Professional Portal
What: Review the Implementation Pay Scenarios FAQ to familiarize yourself with solutions for different scenarios. We have also linked additional Q&A used for 7/1/25 implementation for additional guidance.
How: Access the document within the HR Professional Portal each time you have questions about scenarios. OFM will continue to update the FAQs as different scenarios come to light. Continue checking this resource. If you have scenarios that aren’t on this document, send your questions to StateHR@ofm.wa.gov.
Resources: Implementation Scenarios – WPEA Implementation; Q&A for July 2025 Implementation
What: Ensure correct personnel subarea and pay scale type selections for all employees throughout fiscal year 26 (7/1/25 through 6/30/26). Corrections must be made no later than 7/7/26 by 8 pm.
How: Run employee and position reports to validate data. Make any necessary corrections to position Acct. Assignment Features (1008), employee Organizational Assignment (0001), or employee Basic Pay (0008) infotype records. OFM will begin identifying impacted employees and making retroactive entries on 7/8/26 so all corrections need to be made before that work begins.
Resources: Position Account Assignment Features, Organizational Assignment, Basic Pay
What: Communicate with losing or gaining agencies for impacted employees who were active with other agencies. This may require coordination among multiple agencies.
How: Identify employees on the spreadsheet who were active with another agency between 7/1/25 and 6/30/26. For impacted employees who changed agencies, both agencies HR and payroll offices should coordinate to develop a plan for updating and validating employee data. If the employee was represented by WPEA-GG at the losing agency, that agency may not have full access to update the employee’s records and will require assistance from the gaining agency. Additionally, the gaining agency may not have the necessary security authorization to make changes for the period during which the employee was assigned to the losing agency. In this scenario, the losing agency should document the necessary changes needed and then during post-implementation activities, utilize Winshuttle to make the necessary updates to the employee’s record. Depending on the changes needed at the losing agency, the gaining agency may have subsequent updates to make with their appointment with that employee, so the losing agency should be prepared to share information about the retroactive changes so the gaining agency can also document any necessary changes on their end.
Resources: WPEA Employee & Movement Data spreadsheet, Agency WPEA HR & Payroll Point of Contacts list is posted in the HR Professional Portal under the ‘Communications’ tile. HR staff can access this document to share with payroll partners. Agency WPEA HR & Payroll Point of Contacts list is posted in the HR Professional Portal under the Communications tile. HR staff can access this document to share with payroll partners.
What: Identify direct job-to-person relationships that were active at any point during fiscal year 2026 (7/1/25 through 6/30/26) and prepare to manually update records for those employees.
How: Run the Display Personnel Planning Database report and use the statewide variant SWV_JOB_A017 – SWV Job to Person to identify direct job to person relationships. OFM cannot update Basic Pay (0008) records for these employees. Determine what updates will need to be made, document these items and key entries during the Agency Post-Implementation Activities.
Resources: Display Personnel Planning Database
What: Hold appointment change and salary change entries effective on or after 7/1/26 for impacted employees until confirmation that OFM Implementation Items are completed.
How: See Agency Post-Implementation Action Items for when to enter these changes in HRMS.
What: Confirm mailing address and payment information for separated employees.
How: Identify and contact impacted employees who are currently separated to ensure up to date payment information and mailing address. If necessary, make updates. Use the WPEA Employee & Movement Data spreadsheet or run the Actions Report to identify separated employees. Save the list of your separated employees for Agency Post-Implementation activities.
Resources: WPEA Employee & Movement Data spreadsheet, Actions Report, Addresses – Copy and Update Record, Bank Details – Copy and Update Record
What: Identify employees on WPEA salary schedules whose records are directly valued. If they should have been indirectly valued instead, correct the Basic Pay record. If they were directly valued for a reason, determine if any retroactive pay entries are needed.
How: OFM will update the WPEA salary schedules which will update employee Basic Pay (0008) records for indirectly valued employees. Use the Employee Basic Pay IT 8 History Report to identify and audit directly valued employees. If an employee was erroneously directly valued, then correct those records no later than 8 pm on 7/7/26. If any employee was directly valued for a specific reason (such as salary set above the salary range maximum), then determine if the employee is eligible for the 7/1/25 3% general wage increase (GWI) and if any other retroactive pay changes will be needed. OFM will not apply the 7/1/25 3% GWI to any WPEA-GG employees who are directly valued. Document any required changes and enter or validate them during the Agency Post-Implementation activities.
Resources: Employee Basic Pay IT 8 History Report, Basic Pay
What: Review impacted employees who have one or more basic pay records since 7/1/25 and prepare to manually update records for those employees. These employees may have had subsequent appointments that should be reviewed for correct salary placement (including non-WPEA appointments).
How: OFM will update employee Basic Pay (0008) records with a 7/1/25 effective date for WPEA-GG employees. If an employee has any Basic Pay records with an effective date after 7/1/25, then agencies will need to review the employee’s records and determine the appropriate salary placement and next increase date, if needed, for each record. This includes any Basic Pay records within WPEA-GG as well as those who have moved to a non-WPEA-GG position in the same or different agency. Document any required changes and process them during the Agency Post-Implementation Activities.
Resources: Complete an audit of impacted employees using the Employee Basic Pay IT 8 History Report with the Implementation Scenarios – WPEA Implementation. Refer to the resources on the HR Professional Portal or applicable WAC or CBA for information on salary determination.
What: Identify any new assignment pay, premium pay, or absence types, and prepare to make those entries.
How: Review the list of wage types and absence types from 6/16/25 HRMS Wage Types Communication as well as the 2025-27 Proposed Class Comp Changes document on the HR Professional Portal for a list of job classes with special pay, premium pay, or other incentive pay changes. Identify employees who are eligible for any of these new types of pay, new rates of pay, or new absence types. Document any impacted employees along with applicable wage types and absence codes to prepare for retroactive entry during the Agency Post-Implementation Activities.
Resources: HRMS Wage Types Communication, HR Professional Portal; 2025-27 Proposed class comp changes
What: Identify employees with active Washington State Child Support orders. WPEA Impacted employees with retroactive payments may need to be reported to Division of Child Support (DCS) if the employee has child support in arrears.
How: Run the Payroll Posting report using the personnel numbers of impacted employees using the Wage Type selection for Wage Type 3020 and execute the report. After executing the report, select Change Layout, select the Filter tab, highlight Vendor Number, and select the Add Filter Criterion button to move Vendor Number to the Filter Criteria section. Once the Vendor Number is in the Filter Criteria section, click directly on the Vendor Number title to highlight it. Click the Define Values button. In the Vendor Number box, enter SWV000714401 and click the Enter button. Click the Enter button again to view the report results. Once you identify employees with active child support orders, complete an audit of each employee’s order to determine if the employee is in arrears. Eliminate employees who are not in arrears from this list. Document any remaining employees for final determination and reporting during the Agency Post-Implementation Activities.
Resources: Payroll Posting Report, RCW 26.23.063, 74.20A, 26.21A, DSHS Withholding from Bonuses and Lump-Sum Payments
What: Run position and employee reports prior to 7/8/26, before the retroactive entries in HRMS will begin. Export and save these reports for use in your validation of data.
How: When retroactive entries are made in HRMS, they override the current data, and the original entries are no longer available in most reports. There are a couple of reports you can use to view what changed, Logged Changes in Infotype Data (S_AHR_61016380) and Display Working Time (CATS_DA). However, it will likely be easier to have the data you need compiled in a couple of spreadsheets that you can reference to view the original entries. Save this data for use in your validation during Agency Post-Implementation Activities.
Resources: Various position and employee reports.
What: Identify impacted employees who work outside of Washington, and review state specific employment and tax laws for any special considerations.
How: Identify your out of state employees and navigate state-specific labor laws, potential tax nexus issues, varied state minimum wages, local pay frequency laws, tax withholding, and/or penalties for failing to include retro pay in regular-rate-of-pay calculations for overtime.
Resources: Idaho Tax Filing Report, Oregon Tax Filing Report, Flexible Employee Data Report. Questions/assistance: Consult your agency’s assigned AAG.
What: Identify where your agency may have 30 or more of the same data updates to process. Consider using Winshuttle to reduce your workload which allows OFM to upload data from Excel to HRMS through a pre-built Excel file. You can also begin compiling the data you’ll need to populate Winshuttle spreadsheets.
How: Familiarize yourself with available Winshuttle options. For the WPEA implementation, a new Basic Pay Update - Pay Scale with Start and End Dates Update script has been added, but other scripts may also be helpful depending on the type of updates needed. Once scripts have been identified, begin populating them with the position or employee information required.
Resources: Visit the Winshuttle page on the HRMS Support Hub. Various position and employee reports.
If you have questions about any of the preparation items, please send questions to StateHR@ofm.wa.gov.
The following items will be completed by OFM. We will begin these items on 7/8/26 and anticipate completing them by 7/13/26. We will communicate to agencies once these items have been completed and agencies may move forward with Post-Implementation Action Items.
Load 2025 WPEA Salary Schedules
- Load 7/1/25 WPEA salary schedules into HRMS.
Update Positions in WPEA Job Classes
- Identify all positions within WPEA Personnel Subareas and move any “shadow class” positions back into existing HRMS job classes.
- Update position planned compensation records to align with the revised job class ranges and amounts effective 7/1/25. This will include positions moving out of the “shadow classes”, as well as positions assigned job classes with targeted increases due to base range and/or starting wage changes.
- Abolish all WPEA shadow job classes, on a future date to be determined, after confirming agencies have completed position allocations and no positions or employees remain assigned to the abolished job classes.
Identify Impacted Employees and Lift Retro Wall
- Identify employees who held WPEA positions between 7/1/25 through 6/30/26.
- Lift retro wall for impacted employees to allow retroactively to 7/1/25.
Update Organization Assignment Records
- Identify employees whose positions were moved out of “shadow classes” and back into existing HRMS job classes.
- Exclude employees who had an active job-to-person relationship during this same period.
- Update Organizational Assignment records for employees whose job classes are moving from shadow classes back to existing job classes.
Update Basic Pay Records - Starting Wage
- Identify employees whose positions planned compensation records were updated due to starting wage changes.
- Exclude employees who had an active job-to-person relationship during fiscal year 26.
- Create or update 7/1/25 basic pay records.
- Update ranges and steps (salary-to-salary).
- Run the PID and Longevity Projection History Report to add Next Increase Dates for employees who are not at L/M on 7/1/25.
- Exclude Next Increase Dates for employees who are at Steps L or M on 7/1/25.
Update Basic Pay Records - Base Range
- Identify employees whose positions planned compensation records were updated due to targeted base range increases
- Exclude employees who had active job-to-person relationship during fiscal year 26.
- Create or update a 7/1/25 basic pay record.
- Update range (step-for-step).
- Run the PID and Longevity Projection History Report to add Next Increase Dates.
Update Basic Pay Records for Remaining Impacted Employees
- Create or update a 7/1/25 basic pay record using the exact range and step to trigger retroactive processing.
Important exceptions:
- OFM will not update basic pay records for employees in positions that must be allocated by the agency due to position abolishment or other class plan maintenance.
- OFM will not update basic pay records that are not WPEA, based on the Pay Scale Type.
- For employees with more than one basic pay record or were hired after 7/1/25, OFM will not update any Basic Pay records with an effective date after 7/1/25.
- OFM will not update Organizational Assignment or Basic Pay records for employees who had an active job-to-person relationship during fiscal year 26.
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