Sponsored by:
Assemblyman JOHN ARMATO
District 2 (Atlantic)
Assemblywoman ANNETTE QUIJANO
District 20 (Union)
Assemblyman DANIEL R. BENSON
District 14 (Mercer and Middlesex)
Co-Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman Reynolds-Jackson
SYNOPSIS
Responsible Collective Negotiations Act.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning public employment relations, amending P.L.1967, c.310 and P.L. 2018, c.15, and supplementing Title 34 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. (New section) This act shall be known and may be cited as the Responsible Collective Negotiations Act.
2. (New section) It is hereby declared as the public policy of this State that the public interest is best served in the prompt settlement of labor disputes and in achieving cost effective and creative solutions to ensure the efficient delivery of public services and that policy is best achieved by entrusting democratically elected government officials with broad authority to negotiate over the terms of employment of their employees; that the constitutional mandate that public employees have the right to organize and present grievances to their employers will be promoted by the establishment of an system of collective negotiations between public employers and the representatives of public employees that includes all matters that intimately and directly affect employee work and welfare, unless a negotiated agreement would prevent government from carrying out its statutory mission; and that when public employers and employee representatives agree upon subjects of collective negotiations, it is in the public interest that those agreements are enforceable by both public employee organizations and public employers and that the parties to a collective negotiations agreement respect and abide by their mutual promises and agreements.
3. (New section) Notwithstanding any provisions of the New Jersey Employer-Employee Relations Act, P.L.1941, c.100 (C.34:13A-1 et seq.), or any other law to the contrary, as used in sections 1 through 9 of P.L. , c. (C. ) (now pending before the legislature as this bill):
a. The term commission means the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission.
b. The term employer means the State of New Jersey, or the several counties and municipalities thereof, or any other political subdivision of the State, or any special district, or any county college, or any authority, commission or board, or any branch or agency of the public service, except that the term does not include any local or regional school district, or board or commission under the authority of the Commissioner of Education or the State Board of Education.
c. The term employee means an employee of an employer as defined by subparagraph b above, but does not include firefighting employees of public fire departments or employees engaged in performing police services for public police departments as those terms are defined by section 2 of P.L.1977, c.85 (C.34:13A-15).
d. Terms and conditions of employment" are all matters that intimately and directly affect the work and welfare of public employees. Examples of terms and conditions of employment include, but are not limited to: compensation; hours and schedules of work; fringe benefits; layoffs; subcontracting and privatization; criteria and procedures for promotions, performance evaluations and hiring; transfers of employees; assignments and reassignments of employees; transfer of negotiations unit work; and job security, discipline disputes and disciplinary review procedures.
e. Disciplinary review procedures are procedures to review all forms of discipline, including but not limited to, oral and written reprimands, written warnings, suspensions with and without pay, fines, terminations, non-renewals, non-reappointments, demotions, disciplinary transfers and all other adverse personnel actions based on employee performance or conduct.
f. The terms employee organization and majority representative , unless otherwise specified, means the exclusive majority representative either certified by the commission or recognized by the public employer.
4. (New section) Notwithstanding any provisions of the New Jersey Employer-Employee Relations Act, P.L.1941, c.100 (C.34:13A-1 et seq.), or any other law to the contrary, if an employee who does not pay dues to a majority representative requests that the majority representative represent the employee in arbitration proceedings to enforce the terms of the collective negotiations agreement between the majority representative and the public employer, including arbitration proceedings involving the resolution of disciplinary disputes, the majority representative may charge an employee for the cost of representing the employee in the arbitration proceedings, and may decline to represent an employee in the arbitration unless the employee agrees to pay for the cost of the representation.
5. (New section) Only the parties to a collective negotiations agreement shall have the authority to invoke the arbitration procedures of the agreement and the public employer and the employee organization shall be the only parties to the arbitration proceeding invoked pursuant to the collective negotiations agreement.
6. (New section) An authorization card or petition submitted to the Commission for purposes of conducting an election to select a majority representative or certifying an employee organization as the exclusive majority representative based on a majority of employees in the unit signing authorization cards or a petition, may bear the electronic signature of the employee, as the term electronic signature is defined in section 2 of P.L. 2001, c. 116, (C. 12A:12-2).
7. (New section) Notwithstanding any provisions of the New Jersey Employer-Employee Relations Act, P.L.1941, c.100 (C.34:13A-1 et seq.), or any other law to the contrary:
a. Mandatory subjects for collective negotiation in public employment shall include terms and conditions of employment of public employees that are not specifically exempted from collective negotiations by State statute, unless a negotiated agreement would prevent government from carrying out its statutory mission. Statutes and administrative regulations that set terms and conditions of employment or that grant public employers authority over terms and conditions of employment do not preempt collective negotiations and do not supersede the provisions of any negotiated agreement, except that terms and conditions of employment set by statutes and regulations shall not be diminished by a negotiated agreement.
b. Grievance and disciplinary review procedures s