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An Act To Include within the Definition of "Public Employee" Those Who Have Been Employed Less than 6 Months
Emergency preamble. Whereas, acts and resolves of the Legislature do not become effective until 90 days after adjournment unless enacted as emergencies; and
Whereas,  this legislation must take effect before the expiration of the 90-day period in order to provide as soon as possible protections under the law to employees of public employers who have been employed less than 6 months; and
Whereas,  in the judgment of the Legislature, these facts create an emergency within the meaning of the Constitution of Maine and require the following legislation as immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety; now, therefore,
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 26 MRSA §962, sub-§6, ¶F, as repealed and replaced by PL 1969, c. 578, §1, is repealed.
Sec. 2. 26 MRSA §979-A, sub-§6, ¶E, as enacted by PL 1973, c. 774, is repealed.
Sec. 3. 26 MRSA §979-D, sub-§1, ¶E, as amended by PL 1997, c. 741, §6 and affected by §12, is further amended by amending subparagraph (3) to read:
 
E.  To confer and negotiate in good faith:
 
(1) To confer and negotiate in good faith with respect to wages, hours, working conditions and contract grievance arbitration, except that by such obligation neither party shall be compelled to agree to a proposal or be required to make a concession. All matters relating to the relationship between the employer and employees shall be the subject of collective bargaining, except those matters which are prescribed or controlled by public law. Such matters appropriate for collective bargaining to the extent they are not prescribed or controlled by public law include but are not limited to:
 
(a) Wage and salary schedules to the extent they are inconsistent with rates prevailing in commerce and industry for comparable work within the State;
 
(b) Work schedules relating to assigned hours and days of the week;
 
(c) Use of vacation or sick leave, or both;
 
(d) General working conditions;
 
(e) Overtime practices;
 
(f) Rules for personnel administration, except the following: Rules relating to applicants for employment in state or legislative service and state classified employees in an initial probationary status, including any extensions thereof, provided such rules are not discriminatory by reason of an applicant's race, color, creed, sex or national origin;
 
(g) Compensation system for state and legislative employees, which is defined as:
 
(i) Guide charts, if any, and job evaluation factors, including factor language and factor weights, used to evaluate jobs for pay purposes;
 
(ii) Job point to pay grade conversion tables;
 
(iii) The number of and spread between pay steps within pay grades;
 
(iv) The number of and spread between pay grades within the system; and
 
(v) Temporary payment of recruitment and retention stipends, provided the stipends are allowed under Civil Service Law;
 
(h) The nature of and procedures governing appeals of the allocation or reallocation of job classifications to pay grades resulting from any revisions to the compensation system; and
 
(i) Implementation of any revisions to the compensation system.
 
(2) Subparagraph (1), shall not be construed to be in derogation of or contravene the spirit and intent of the merit system principles and personnel laws.
 
(3) Cost items shallmust be submitted for inclusion in the Governor's next operating budget within 10 days after the date on which the agreement is ratified by the parties. If the Legislature rejects any of the cost items submitted to it, all cost items submitted shallmust be returned to the parties for further bargaining. Cost items related to a collective bargaining agreement reached under this chapter and submitted to the Legislature for its approval under this subparagraph shallmay not be submitted in the same legislation that contains cost items for employees exempted from the definition of "state employee" under section 979-A, subsection 6, and employees of the legislative branch, except that cost items for those employees exempted under section 979-A, subsection 6, paragraphs E andparagraph F, need not be excluded.
 
(4) Collective bargaining over the subjects described in subparagraph (1), divisions (g), (h) and (i), is subject to the following.
 
(a) Subparagraph (1), division (g), shall not be construed to authorize any more than one system for evaluating jobs of state employees in bargaining units recognized under this chapter.
 
(b) Either the public employer or the bargaining agents may compel the other party to bargain collectively over the subjects described in subparagraph (1), divisions (g), (h) and (i), provided that bargaining over those subjects may not be compelled by either the public employer or the bargaining agents sooner than 10 years after the parties' last agreement to revise the compensation system made pursuant to a demand to bargain.
 
(c) During the periods of time described in division (b), when the subjects described in subparagraph (1), divisions (g), (h) and (i), are not mandatory subjects of bargaining, they shall be permissive subjects of bargaining.
 
(d) Bargaining over the subjects described in subparagraph (1), divisions (g), (h) and (i), shall be conducted separately and apart from bargaining with individual bargaining agents over all other negotiable subjects and shall be conducted within a committee composed of representatives of management and of the bargaining units recognized under this chapter.
 
(e) The labor representatives on the committee shall consist of equal numbers of representatives from each of the bargaining units recognized under this chapter. Each bargaining unit shall have one vote, regardless of the number of representatives, on any matter addressed by the committee. The labor position on any matter addressed by the committee shall be established by majority vote of the units recognized under this chapter. A majority vote of the units is necessary to initiate bargaining over the matters described in subparagraph (1), divisions (g), (h) and (i).
 
(f) Notwithstanding the time frame provided in subparagraph (3), cost items resulting from revisions to the compensation system may only be submitted to the Legislature for funding after all appeals from the allocation or reallocation of job classifications under the revised system have been finally decided. The cost items relating to an individual bargaining unit shall be submitted to the Legislature for funding as part of the next legislation submitted pursuant to subparagraph (3) to fund a collective bargaining agreement between the State and that bargaining unit.
 
(g) Bargaining over the subjects described in subparagraph (1), divisions (g), (h) and (i), shall be subject to the dispute resolution procedures of subsections 2, 3 and 4. For purposes of subsection 4, paragraph D, controversies over the subjects described in subparagraph (1), divisions (g), (h) and (i), shall be deemed "controversies over salaries."
 
(5) Nothing in this chapter may be construed to exclude from the scope of collective bargaining the subjects described in subparagraph (1), divisions (g), (h) and (i).
Emergency clause.  In view of the emergency cited in the preamble, this legislation takes effect when approved.
 
SUMMARY
This bill allows a person who has been an employee of the State or another public employer for less than 6 months to be considered a public employee for the purposes of the public employees labor relations laws.