Gary Moore, who has headed the Department of Labor & Industries under Governor Gary Locke since 1997 and who counts the state’s onerous Ergonomics Rule as an achievement, has been named as Washington’s first Director of Labor Relations. Office of Financial Management Director Marty Brown made the announcement. Moore, 53, assumed the $125,000 a year post on Nov. 1.

In his new position, Moore will organize and oversee a new labor relations unit within the Office of Financial Management. He is tasked with negotiating collective-bargaining agreements with Washington state employee unions and will act as the executive branch’s chief negotiator at the bargaining table. Before working for state government, Moore headed the state’s largest public employee union for 19 years.

Negotiations with state employees as authorized by the Personnel System Reform Act of 2002, which was passed by the Legislature last spring at the governor’s request, are set to begin next year.

Moore commented that he was “excited about the new assignment. It’s a big challenge. The new civil service reform law is a major policy change for state government and I look forward to negotiating these important issues.”

Locke said he was sorry to lose Moore as his L&I chief, but pleased that he will continue to serve as the administration’s chief labor negotiator.

As director of L&I, Moore served as a member of the Washington State Investment Board and was responsible for retirement fund investments of more than $50 billion, plus the $8.6 billion Washington State Fund for workers’ compensation. The poor return on those investments is among the reasons for L&I’s recently announced 40.5 percent average rate increase.

Before to moving to L&I, Moore was commissioner of the Washington State Employment Security Department and deputy staff director under former Gov. Mike Lowry, as well as Lowry’s director of legislative relations prior to that.

Previously, Moore worked for 19 years with the Washington Federation of State Employees (AFSCME, AFL-CIO), including 10 years as executive director of the 20,000-member state employee labor union.