093_SB1360enr

SB1360 Enrolled                      LRB093 06075 NHT 06178 b

 1        AN ACT relating to educational labor relations.

 2        Be  it  enacted  by  the People of the State of Illinois,
 3    represented in the General Assembly:

 4        Section 5.  The Illinois Educational Labor Relations  Act
 5    is amended by changing Section 7 as follows:

 6        (115 ILCS 5/7) (from Ch. 48, par. 1707)
 7        Sec.    7.     Recognition    of   exclusive   bargaining
 8    representatives - unit determination. The Board is  empowered
 9    to  administer  the recognition of bargaining representatives
10    of employees of public school districts, including  employees
11    of  districts  which  have  entered into joint agreements, or
12    employees of public community college districts, or any State
13    college or university,  and  any  State  agency  whose  major
14    function  is  providing  educational services, making certain
15    that  each  bargaining  unit  contains  employees   with   an
16    identifiable  community of interest and that no unit includes
17    both professional  employees  and  nonprofessional  employees
18    unless  a  majority  of  employees  in  each  group  vote for
19    inclusion in the unit.
20        (a)  In determining the appropriateness of  a  unit,  the
21    Board shall decide in each case, in order to ensure employees
22    the  fullest  freedom  in exercising the rights guaranteed by
23    this Act, the unit appropriate for the purpose of  collective
24    bargaining,  based  upon  but  not limited to such factors as
25    historical pattern of  recognition,  community  of  interest,
26    including employee skills and functions, degree of functional
27    integration,  interchangeability and contact among employees,
28    common supervision, wages, hours and other working conditions
29    of the employees involved, and the desires of the  employees.
30    Nothing  in  this  Act,  except  as  herein  provided,  shall
31    interfere with or negate the current representation rights or
 
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 1    patterns  and  practices of employee organizations which have
 2    historically  represented  employees  for  the  purposes   of
 3    collective  bargaining,  including  but  not  limited  to the
 4    negotiations  of  wages,  hours   and   working   conditions,
 5    resolutions   of  employees'  grievances,  or  resolution  of
 6    jurisdictional disputes, or the establishment and maintenance
 7    of prevailing wage rates, unless a majority of the  employees
 8    so   represented   expresses  a  contrary  desire  under  the
 9    procedures set forth in this  Act.   This  Section,  however,
10    does not prohibit multi-unit bargaining.  Notwithstanding the
11    above  factors,  where  the majority of public employees of a
12    craft so decide, the Board shall designate such  craft  as  a
13    unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining.
14        The  sole  appropriate  bargaining  unit  for tenured and
15    tenure-track  academic  faculty  at  each   campus   of   the
16    University  of  Illinois shall be a unit that is comprised of
17    non-supervisory academic faculty employed more than half-time
18    and  that  includes  all  tenured  and,   tenure-track,   and
19    nontenure-track faculty of that University campus employed by
20    the  board  of  trustees  of  that  University  in all of the
21    campus's  its  undergraduate,  graduate,   and   professional
22    schools   and   degree  and  non-degree  programs  (with  the
23    exception  of  the  college  of  medicine,  the  college   of
24    pharmacy,  the  college of dentistry, the college of law, and
25    the college of veterinary medicine, each of which shall  have
26    its  own  separate unit), regardless of current or historical
27    representation rights or patterns or the application  of  any
28    other factors. Any decision, rule, or regulation, promulgated
29    by the Board to the contrary shall be null and void.
30        (b)  An  educational employer may voluntarily recognize a
31    labor organization for collective bargaining purposes if that
32    organization appears to represent a majority of employees  in
33    the unit.  The employer shall post notice of its intent to so
34    recognize for a period of at least 20 school days on bulletin
 
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 1    boards or other places used or reserved for employee notices.
 2    Thereafter,  the  employer,  if  satisfied as to the majority
 3    status of  the  employee  organization,  shall  send  written
 4    notification   of   such   recognition   to   the  Board  for
 5    certification.
 6        Within the 20  day  notice  period,  however,  any  other
 7    interested  employee  organization  may petition the Board to
 8    seek recognition as the exclusive representative of the  unit
 9    in  the  manner specified by rules and regulations prescribed
10    by the Board, if such interested  employee  organization  has
11    been  designated  by  at  least  15%  of  the employees in an
12    appropriate bargaining unit which includes all or some of the
13    employees in the  unit  intended  to  be  recognized  by  the
14    employer.   In  such  event, the Board shall proceed with the
15    petition in the same manner as provided in paragraph  (c)  of
16    this Section.
17        (c)  A  labor  organization  may also gain recognition as
18    the exclusive representative by an election of the  employees
19    in  the  unit.  Petitions requesting an election may be filed
20    with the Board:
21             (1)  by an employee or group  of  employees  or  any
22        labor  organizations  acting on their behalf alleging and
23        presenting evidence that 30% or more of the employees  in
24        a  bargaining  unit wish to be represented for collective
25        bargaining or that the labor organization which has  been
26        acting  as  the exclusive bargaining representative is no
27        longer representative of a majority of the  employees  in
28        the unit; or
29             (2)  by  an employer alleging that one or more labor
30        organizations have presented a claim to be recognized  as
31        an  exclusive  bargaining representative of a majority of
32        the employees in an appropriate unit and that  it  doubts
33        the  majority  status of any of the organizations or that
34        it doubts the majority status of an exclusive  bargaining
 
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 1        representative.
 2        The  Board  shall  investigate the petition and if it has
 3    reasonable cause to suspect that a question of representation
 4    exists, it shall give notice and conduct a  hearing.   If  it
 5    finds  upon  the  record  of  the  hearing that a question of
 6    representation exists, it shall  direct  an  election,  which
 7    shall  be  held  no  later  than  90  days after the date the
 8    petition  was  filed.   Nothing  prohibits  the  waiving   of
 9    hearings by the parties and the conduct of consent elections.
10        (d)  An  order  of  the Board dismissing a representation
11    petition,   determining   and   certifying   that   a   labor
12    organization has been fairly and freely chosen by a  majority
13    of  employees  in an appropriate bargaining unit, determining
14    and certifying that a labor organization has not been  fairly
15    and   freely  chosen  by  a  majority  of  employees  in  the
16    bargaining unit or certifying a  labor  organization  as  the
17    exclusive  representative  of  employees  in  an  appropriate
18    bargaining  unit because of a determination by the Board that
19    the  labor  organization   is   the   historical   bargaining
20    representative  of  employees  in  the  bargaining unit, is a
21    final order.  Any person aggrieved by any such  order  issued
22    on or after the effective date of this amendatory Act of 1987
23    may  apply  for and obtain judicial review in accordance with
24    provisions of  the  Administrative  Review  Law,  as  now  or
25    hereafter  amended, except that such review shall be afforded
26    directly in the Appellate Court of  a  judicial  district  in
27    which the Board maintains an office. Any direct appeal to the
28    Appellate  Court  shall be filed within 35 days from the date
29    that a copy of the decision sought to be reviewed was  served
30    upon the party affected by the decision.
31        No  election  may  be  conducted  in  any bargaining unit
32    during the term of a collective bargaining agreement covering
33    such unit or subdivision thereof, except the Board may direct
34    an election after the filing of a petition between January 15
 
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 1    and March 1 of the final  year  of  a  collective  bargaining
 2    agreement.  Nothing in this Section prohibits the negotiation
 3    of  a  collective  bargaining agreement covering a period not
 4    exceeding 3 years.  A collective bargaining agreement of less
 5    than 3 years may be extended up to 3 years by the parties  if
 6    the  extension is agreed to in writing before the filing of a
 7    petition under this Section.  In such case, the final year of
 8    the extension is the final year of the collective  bargaining
 9    agreement.    No  election  may  be conducted in a bargaining
10    unit, or subdivision thereof, in which a valid  election  has
11    been held within the preceding 12 month period.
12    (Source: P.A. 88-1; 89-4, eff. 7-1-95 (eff. date changed from
13    1-1-96 by P.A. 89-24).)