May 24, 2011, Introduced by Senators JONES, NOFS and RICHARDVILLE and referred to the Committee on Government Operations.
A bill to amend 1969 PA 312, entitled
"An act to provide for compulsory arbitration of labor disputes in
municipal police and fire departments; to define such public
departments; to provide for the selection of members of arbitration
panels; to prescribe the procedures and authority thereof; and to
provide for the enforcement and review of awards thereof,"
by amending sections 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10 (MCL 423.232,
423.233, 423.235, 423.236, 423.238, 423.239, and 423.240).
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec.
2. (1) Public As used in
this act, "public police and or
fire
departments department
employee" means any department employee
of
a city, county, village, or township,
having employees or of any
authority, district, board, or any other entity created in whole or
in part by the authorization of 1 or more cities, counties,
villages, or townships, whether created by statute, ordinance,
contract, resolution, delegation, or any other mechanism, who is
engaged
as policemen a police
officer, or in fire fighting or
subject
to the hazards thereof; , emergency
medical service
personnel
employed by a public police or fire department; ,
or an
emergency telephone operator, but only if directly employed by a
public police or fire department. Public police and fire department
employee does not include any of the following:
(a) An employee of a community college.
(b) An employee of a metropolitan district created under 1939
PA 147, MCL 119.51 to 119.62.
(c) An emergency telephone operator employed by a 911
authority or consolidated dispatch center.
(2) "Emergency medical service personnel" for purposes of this
act includes a person who provides assistance at dispatched or
observed medical emergencies occurring outside a recognized medical
facility including instances of heart attack, stroke, injury
accidents, electrical accidents, drug overdoses, imminent
childbirth, and other instances where there is the possibility of
death or further injury; initiates stabilizing treatment or
transportation of injured from the emergency site; and notifies
police or interested departments of certain situations encountered
including criminal matters, poisonings, and the report of
contagious diseases. "Emergency telephone operator" for the purpose
of this act includes a person employed by a police or fire
department for the purpose of relaying emergency calls to police,
fire, or emergency medical service personnel.
(3)
This act shall does not apply to persons employed by a
private emergency medical service company who work under a contract
with a governmental unit or personnel working in an emergency
service organization whose duties are solely of an administrative
or supporting nature and who are not otherwise qualified under
subsection (2).
Sec. 3. (1) Whenever in the course of mediation of a public
police or fire department employee's dispute, except a dispute
concerning the interpretation or application of an existing
agreement (a "grievance" dispute), the dispute has not been
resolved to the agreement of both parties within 30 days of the
submission of the dispute to mediation, or within such further
additional periods to which the parties may agree, the employees or
employer may initiate binding arbitration proceedings by prompt
request, therefor,
in writing, to the other, with copy to the
mediator and the employment relations commission.
(2) Upon receipt of a written request for binding arbitration,
the mediator shall, in consultation with the parties, create and
transmit to both parties a list of each of the issues in dispute.
Within 30 days after receipt of the written request, the parties
shall meet with the mediator to present in writing and explain
proposed contract language to resolve each issue, including any
issues previously discussed by the parties but omitted from the
mediator's list, and to engage in any further discussion or
negotiation as the parties agree. Except in cases in which the
parties agree to a longer period because of continuing
negotiations, the mediator shall transmit the final list of issues
in dispute and both parties' proposed contract language to the
employment relations commission for hearing not more than 14 days
after receiving the written proposed contract language. The parties
retain the right to meet and negotiate, with or without the
mediator, to attempt to resolve some or all of the disputed issues
at any time before the arbitration panel issues an award pursuant
to this act.
Sec.
5. (1) Within 7 days of a request from 1 or both parties
receiving a list of issues in dispute and proposed contract
language from the mediator pursuant to section 3, the employment
relations commission shall select from its panel of arbitrators, as
provided in subsection (2), 3 persons as nominees for impartial
arbitrator or chairman of the arbitration panel. Within 5 days
after the selection each party may peremptorily strike the name of
1 of the nominees. Within 7 days after this 5-day period, the
commission shall designate 1 of the remaining nominees as the
impartial
arbitrator or chairman chair
of the arbitration panel.
(2) The employment relations commission shall establish and
appoint a panel of arbitrators, who shall be known as the Michigan
employment relations commission panel of arbitrators. The
commission shall appoint members for indefinite terms. Members
shall be impartial, competent, and reputable citizens of the United
States and residents of the state, and shall qualify by taking and
subscribing the constitutional oath or affirmation of office. The
commission may at any time appoint additional members to the panel
of arbitrators, and may remove existing members without cause.
(3) The employment relations commission shall establish the
qualifications and training that are necessary for an individual to
serve as the chair of an arbitration panel under this act. The
commission may waive the qualifications and training requirements
for an individual who has served as a commission-appointed chair of
an arbitration panel in an arbitration proceeding under this act
before the effective date of the amendatory act that added this
subsection.
Sec. 6. Upon the appointment of the arbitrator under section
5, he
or she shall proceed to act as chairman
chair of the panel of
arbitration, call a hearing, to begin within 15 days, and give
reasonable notice of the time and place of the hearing. The
chairman
chair shall preside over the hearing and shall take
testimony.
Upon application and for good cause shown, and upon such
terms
and conditions as that are just, a person, labor
organization, or governmental unit having a substantial interest
therein
in the matter may be granted leave to intervene by the
arbitration panel. Any oral or documentary evidence and other data
deemed
relevant by the arbitration panel considers relevant may be
received in evidence. The proceedings shall be informal. Technical
rules
of evidence shall do not apply and do not impair the
competency
of the evidence. shall not thereby be deemed impaired. A
verbatim record of the proceedings shall be made, and the
arbitrator
chair shall arrange for the necessary recording service.
Transcripts may be ordered at the expense of the party ordering
them, but the
transcripts shall are not be necessary for a decision
by the arbitration panel. The expense of the proceedings, including
a
fee to the chairman chair, established in advance by the labor
mediation board shall be borne equally by each of the parties to
the
dispute. and the state. The delegates, if public
officers or
employees, shall continue on the payroll of the public employer at
their usual rate of pay. The hearing conducted by the arbitration
panel
may be adjourned from time to time, but
, unless otherwise
agreed
by the parties, shall be concluded
within 30 days of the
time
of its commencement. Its If
the parties agree, the chair may
extend the time for concluding the hearing to no more than 180 days
from the time the hearing commences. The arbitration panel's
majority actions and rulings shall constitute the actions and
rulings of the arbitration panel.
Sec. 8. At a hearing held pursuant to section 6, the
arbitrator shall address the merits of only the issues identified
by the mediator and submitted to the employment relations
commission pursuant to section 3. At or before the conclusion of
the
hearing, held pursuant to section 6, the arbitration
panel
shall
identify the economic issues in dispute
, and direct each of
the
parties to submit, within such a
time limit as the panel shall
prescribe
the chair prescribes, to the arbitration panel chair and
to each other its last offer of settlement on each economic issue.
The
determination of the arbitration panel as to the issues in
dispute
and as to which of these the issues
are economic shall be
is
conclusive. The arbitration panel,
within 30 days after the
conclusion
of the hearing, or such further additional periods to
which
the parties may agree, Within
30 days after the conclusion of
the hearing, or if the parties agree to an extension, within 90
days after the conclusion of the hearing, the arbitration panel
shall
make written findings of fact and promulgate incorporated in
a written opinion and order upon the issues presented to it and
upon the record made before it, and shall mail or otherwise deliver
a
true copy thereof of the
opinion to the parties and their
representatives and to the employment relations commission. As to
each economic issue, the arbitration panel shall adopt the last
offer
of settlement which that, in the opinion of the arbitration
panel, more nearly complies with the applicable factors prescribed
in section 9. The findings, opinions, and order as to all other
issues shall be based upon the applicable factors prescribed in
section
9. This section as amended shall be applicable only to
arbitration
proceedings initiated under section 3 on or after
January
1, 1973.
Sec.
9. Where there is no agreement between the parties, or
where
there is an agreement but the parties If the parties have no
collective bargaining agreement or have begun negotiations or
discussions
looking to a new agreement or amendment of to amend the
existing agreement, and wage rates or other conditions of
employment under the proposed new or amended agreement are in
dispute, the arbitration panel shall base its findings, opinions
and order upon the following factors, as applicable:
(a) The financial ability of the unit of government to meet
these costs.
(b) (a)
The lawful authority of the
employer.
(c) (b)
Stipulations of the parties.
(d) (c)
The interests and welfare of the
public. and the
financial
ability of the unit of government to meet those costs.
(e) (d)
Comparison of the wages, hours, and
conditions of
employment of the employees involved in the arbitration proceeding
with the wages, hours, and conditions of employment of other
employees performing similar services and with other employees
generally:
(i) In public employment in comparable communities.
(ii) In private employment in comparable communities.
(f) Comparison of the wages, hours, and conditions of
employment of other employees of the unit of government outside of
the bargaining unit that is subject to arbitration.
(g) (e)
The average consumer prices for
goods and services,
commonly known as the cost of living.
(h) (f)
The overall compensation presently
received by the
employees, including direct wage compensation, vacations, holidays
and other excused time, insurance and pensions, medical and
hospitalization benefits, the continuity and stability of
employment, and all other benefits received.
(i) (g)
Changes in any of the foregoing
circumstances during
the pendency of the arbitration proceedings.
(j) (h)
Such other factors, not confined to the foregoing,
which
Other factors that are normally or traditionally taken into
consideration in the determination of wages, hours, and conditions
of employment through voluntary collective bargaining, mediation,
fact-finding, arbitration or otherwise between the parties, in the
public service or in private employment.
Sec. 10. A majority decision of the arbitration panel, if
supported by competent, material, and substantial evidence on the
whole
record, shall be is final and binding upon the parties, and
may be enforced, at the instance of either party or of the
arbitration panel in the circuit court for the county in which the
dispute arose or in which a majority of the affected employees
reside. The commencement of a new municipal fiscal year after the
initiation of arbitration procedures under this act, but before the
arbitration
decision, or its enforcement, shall not be deemed to
does
not render a dispute moot , or to otherwise impair the
jurisdiction or authority of the arbitration panel or its decision.
Increases in rates of compensation or other benefits may be awarded
retroactively
to the commencement of any period(s) period or
periods in dispute, any other statute or charter provisions to the
contrary notwithstanding. At any time the parties, by stipulation,
may amend or modify an award of arbitration.