AN ACT CONCERNING THE RIGHT TO ORGANIZE FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES.

This bill provides collective bargaining rights (i. e. , unionizing) to state managers. Current law prohibits this.

It excludes the following managers from the provision granting collective bargaining:

1. the head or deputy head of a state agency, commission, or board;

2. an individual appointed by the governor; and

3. an individual with access to confidential information used in collective bargaining.

By law, a managerial employee means an individual in a position in which the principal functions include at least two of the following:

1. responsibility for direction of a agency's subunit or facility of a major division or assignment to an agency head's staff;

2. development, implementation, and evaluation of goals and objectives consistent with agency mission and policy;

3. participation in the formulation of agency policy; and

4. a major role in the administration of collective bargaining contracts or major personnel decisions, or both, including staffing, hiring, firing, evaluation, promotion, and training of employees.

For managers in any constituent unit of higher education, one of the two functions must be the fourth item on the list.

*House Amendment “A” (1) strikes the provision giving Legislative Branch employees of the State Capitol Police the right to collectively bargain, (2) strikes the language creating the new title of bureau head under the state employee collective bargaining law, (3) exempts certain state managers, (the head or deputy head of state agency, commission, or board; those appointed by the governor; and those having access to confidential information used in collective bargaining) from the provision in the file copy giving managers the right to collectively bargain, and (4) strikes a change to the definition of supervisor in the labor relations act.

The House referred the bill (File 577) to the Appropriations Committee on April 17. The committee favorably voted the substitute language on April 23 that narrowed the scope of collective bargaining for Legislative Branch employees so it only applied to Capitol Police employees.

sHB 6534 (File 555) permits the State Board of Labor Relations to recognize a public employee union as the exclusive representative of an employee unit when a majority of employees sign a union, authorization card.

Yea

Nay

(03/10/2009)

Yea

Nay

(03/25/2009)

Yea

Nay

(04/23/2009)