Bill Text: PA HB26 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Further providing for definitions; and providing for disputes involving religious employers.

Spectrum: Strong Partisan Bill (Democrat 44-4)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2009-04-28 - Referred to LABOR RELATIONS [HB26 Detail]

Download: Pennsylvania-2009-HB26-Introduced.html

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PRINTER'S NO. 1665
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE BILL
No. 26 Session of2009
INTRODUCED BY PASHINSKI, BELFANTI, BISHOP, BRADFORD, BRIGGS, CASORIO, COHEN, CONKLIN, CURRY, DALEY, DePASQUALE, DeWEESE, GEIST, GEORGE, GERGELY, GIBBONS, HALUSKA, HARKINS, JOHNSON, JOSEPHS, KIRKLAND, MAHONEY, McCALL, McGEEHAN, MELIO, MICOZZIE, MIRABITO, MUNDY, MURPHY, M. O'BRIEN, O'NEILL, OLIVER, PARKER, PRESTON, ROEBUCK, SABATINA, SAMUELSON, SEIP, SIPTROTH, STABACK, STURLA, THOMAS, WANSACZ, WATERS, WHITE, WILLIAMS, YOUNGBLOOD AND YUDICHAK, APRIL 28, 2009
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON LABOR RELATIONS, APRIL 28, 2009
AN ACT
Amending the act of June 1, 1937 (P.L.1168, No.294), entitled
"An act to protect the right of employes to organize and
bargain collectively; creating the Pennsylvania Labor
Relations Board; conferring powers and imposing duties upon
the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, officers of the State
government, and courts; providing for the right of employes
to organize and bargain collectively; declaring certain labor
practices by employers to be unfair; further providing that
representatives of a majority of the employes be the
exclusive representatives of all the employes; authorizing
the board to conduct hearings and elections, and certify as
to representatives of employes for purposes of collective
bargaining; empowering the board to prevent any person from
engaging in any unfair labor practice, and providing a
procedure for such cases, including the issuance of a
complaint, the conducting of a hearing, and the making of an
order; empowering the board to petition a court of common
pleas for the enforcement of its order, and providing a
procedure for such cases; providing for the review of an
order of the board by a court of common pleas on petition of
any person aggrieved by such order, and establishing a
procedure for such cases; providing for an appeal from the
common pleas court to the Supreme Court; providing the board
with investigatory powers, including the power to issue
subpoenas and the compelling of obedience to them through
application to the proper court; providing for service of
papers and process of the board; prescribing certain
penalties," further providing for definitions; and providing
for disputes involving religious employers.
The General Assembly finds and declares as follows:
(1) When the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act was
originally passed in 1937, teachers in religiously affiliated
elementary and secondary schools were almost exclusively
members of religious orders. Since the passage of the act,
teachers in religiously affiliated schools have become
predominately lay employees who do not belong to religious
orders and who, in many instances, are not members of the
religious group sponsoring the education.
(2) Thousands of lay teachers and other lay employees
now teach or provide services to religiously affiliated
schools in this Commonwealth. Lay employees are paid salaries
or work for hourly wages, pay Federal, State and local taxes
and utilize resources provided by tax dollars, such as
police, fire and public health services. The religiously
affiliated schools are engaged in commerce.
(3) Lay teachers and other lay employees, such as
librarians, guidance counselors, nurses and janitors have the
right to contract for their services, as do other
nonreligious employees in this Commonwealth, but they do not
have the right to form, join or refrain from joining
organizations based on elections conducted by the
Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board.
(4) The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in Association of
Catholic Teachers, Local 1776 v. Pennsylvania Labor Relations
Board, 547 Pa. 594, 692 A.2d 1039 (1996), found that in the
absence of a clear intention on the part of the General
Assembly to include lay teachers as employees covered by the
act of July 23, 1970 (P.L.563, No.195), known as the Public
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Employe Relations Act, lay teachers were not to be considered
employees under that statute.
(5) Similarly the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in Western
Pennsylvania Hospital v. Lichliter, 340 Pa. 382, 17 A.2d 206
(1941), held that nonprofit corporations were not covered by
the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act because nonprofit
corporations, such as hospitals, were not engaged in
industry, commerce, trade, business or production within the
meaning of the act and that to cover nonprofit institutions
the act would have to be amended by the General Assembly.
(6) Experience has proven that, in the absence of
legislation according lay employees of religiously affiliated
schools the same rights and privileges as are accorded to
other workers in this Commonwealth, the employees are
disadvantaged by being unable to select representatives of
their own choosing to bargain on their behalf with their
employers and suffer from the same economic burdens as did
workers when the act was originally adopted.
(7) The relative inequality in the bargaining power
between lay employees and their employers adversely affects
the general welfare of this Commonwealth in the same manner
as originally described in the findings and policy of the
Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act when it was first adopted.
Therefore, the Commonwealth has a compelling State interest
in affording protections to lay employees.
(8) The purpose of this legislation is to extend a
facially neutral law of general applicability, benefiting
both employees and employers, to lay employees of religiously
affiliated schools while preserving for lay employers an
exemption with respect to coverage under the Pennsylvania
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Labor Relations Act relating to those employees who are
directly employed as members of a religious society, order or
association.
The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1. Section 3(d) of the act of June 1, 1937
(P.L.1168, No.294), known as the Pennsylvania Labor Relations
Act, is amended and the section is amended by adding a clause to
read:
Section 3. Definitions. When used in this act--
* * *
(d) The term "employe" shall include any employe, and shall
not be limited to the employes of a particular employer, unless
the act explicitly states otherwise, and shall include any
individual whose work has ceased as a consequence of, or in
connection with, any current labor dispute, or because of any
unfair labor practice, and who has not obtained any other
regular and substantially equivalent employment, but shall not
include any individual employed as an agricultural laborer, or
in the domestic service of any person in the home of such
person, or any individual employed by his parent or spouse[.],
or any individual employed by a religious organization in a
ministerial capacity, except lay teachers or other lay employes
at religious schools.
* * *
(k) The term "religious employer" includes a religiously
affiliated profit or nonprofit school acting as an employer.
Section 2. The act is amended by adding a section to read:
Section 10.2. Disputes Involving Religious Employers.--(a)
In disputes involving a religious employer, the board may
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neither define nor interpret religious doctrine. The board may
inquire into whether the espoused doctrine is a pretext for the
action of the employer.
(b) Where the evidentiary record before the board shows that
a religious employer made an employment decision based on
religious grounds, the board shall deem the grounds the cause of
that decision but for which the decision in question would not
have occurred unless the employe or the employe's representative
establishes that the employer's religious justification is a
pretext for engaging in any of the unfair labor practices listed
in section 6.
(c) In disputes involving a religious employer, the board
may not alter the employer's organizational structure, nor
determine who within the employer's organization has the power
to resolve religious controversies relating to the structure of
the employer.
(d) This section shall apply notwithstanding the provisions
of the act of December 9, 2002 (P.L.1701, No.214), known as the
"Religious Freedom Protection Act."
Section 3. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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