SENATE BILL 472

52nd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2015

INTRODUCED BY

Sue Wilson Beffort

AN ACT

RELATING TO LABOR; AMENDING THE PUBLIC EMPLOYEE BARGAINING ACT TO EXEMPT CERTAIN GOVERNMENTAL ENTITIES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     SECTION 1. Section 10-7E-4 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 2003, Chapter 4, Section 4 and Laws 2003, Chapter 5, Section 4) is amended to read:

     "10-7E-4. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Public Employee Bargaining Act:

          A. "appropriate bargaining unit" means a group of public employees designated by the board or local board for the purpose of collective bargaining;

          B. "appropriate governing body" means the policymaking body or individual representing a public employer as designated in Section [7 of the Public Employee Bargaining Act] 10-7E-7 NMSA 1978;

          C. "authorization card" means a signed affirmation by a member of an appropriate bargaining unit designating a particular organization as exclusive representative;

          D. "board" means the public employee labor relations board;

          E. "certification" means the designation by the board or local board of a labor organization as the exclusive representative for all public employees in an appropriate bargaining unit;

          F. "collective bargaining" means the act of negotiating between a public employer and an exclusive representative for the purpose of entering into a written agreement regarding wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment;

          G. "confidential employee" means a person who devotes a majority of [his] the person's time to assisting and acting in a confidential capacity with respect to a person who formulates, determines and effectuates management policies;

          H. "emergency" means a one-time crisis that was unforeseen and unavoidable;

          I. "exclusive representative" means a labor organization that, as a result of certification, has the right to represent all public employees in an appropriate bargaining unit for the purposes of collective bargaining;

          J. "fair share" means the payment to a labor organization, which is the exclusive representative for an appropriate bargaining unit, by an employee of that bargaining unit who is not a member of that labor organization equal to a certain percentage of membership dues. Such figure is to be calculated based on United States and New Mexico statutes and case law identifying those expenditures by a labor organization [which] that are permissibly chargeable to all employees in the appropriate bargaining unit under United States and New Mexico statutes and case law, including but not limited to all expenditures incurred by the labor organization in negotiating the contract applicable to all employees in the appropriate bargaining unit, servicing such contract and representing all such employees in grievances and disciplinary actions;

          K. "impasse" means failure of a public employer and an exclusive representative, after good-faith bargaining, to reach agreement in the course of negotiating a collective bargaining agreement;

          L. "labor organization" means an employee organization, one of whose purposes is the representation of public employees in collective bargaining and in otherwise meeting, consulting and conferring with employers on matters pertaining to employment relations;

          M. "local board" means a local labor relations board established by a public employer, other than the state, through ordinance, resolution or charter amendment;

          N. "lockout" means an act by a public employer to prevent its employees from going to work for the purpose of resisting the demands of the employees' exclusive representative or for the purpose of gaining a concession from the exclusive representative;

          O. "management employee" means an employee who is engaged primarily in executive and management functions and is charged with the responsibility of developing, administering or effectuating management policies. An employee shall not be deemed a management employee solely because the employee participates in cooperative decision-making programs on an occasional basis;

          P. "mediation" means assistance by an impartial third party to resolve an impasse between a public employer and an exclusive representative regarding employment relations through interpretation, suggestion and advice;

          Q. "professional employee" means an employee whose work is predominantly intellectual and varied in character and whose work involves the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment in its performance and requires knowledge of an advanced nature in a field of learning customarily requiring specialized study at an institution of higher education or its equivalent. The work of a professional employee is of such character that the output or result accomplished cannot be standardized in relation to a given period of time;

          R. "public employee" means a regular nonprobationary employee of a public employer; provided that, in the public schools, "public employee" shall also include a regular probationary employee;

          S. "public employer" means the state or a political subdivision [thereof, including a municipality] of the state, except as otherwise provided in this subsection, including a municipality with a population of five thousand or more residents, as indicated in the most recent decennial census, that has adopted a home rule charter; [and does not include a government of an Indian nation, tribe or pueblo] provided that state educational institutions as provided in Article 12, Section 11 of the constitution of New Mexico shall be considered public employers other than the state for collective bargaining purposes only. "Public employer" does not include a government of an Indian nation, tribe or pueblo, a municipality with a population of fewer than five thousand residents as indicated in the most recent decennial census, a county with a population of fewer than five thousand residents as indicated in the most recent decennial census or an agency constituted pursuant to a joint powers agreement in which a majority of entities to the agreement are not public employers as defined in this subsection;

          T. "strike" means a public employee's refusal, in concerted action with other public employees, to report for duty or [his] the willful absence in whole or in part from the full, faithful and proper performance of the duties of employment for the purpose of inducing, influencing or coercing a change in the conditions, compensation, rights, privileges or obligations of public employment; and

          U. "supervisor" means an employee who devotes a majority of work time to supervisory duties, who customarily and regularly directs the work of two or more other employees and who has the authority in the interest of the employer to hire, promote or discipline other employees or to recommend such actions effectively, but "supervisor" does not include an individual who performs merely routine, incidental or clerical duties or who occasionally assumes a supervisory or directory role or whose duties are substantially similar to those of [his] the individual's subordinates and does not include a lead employee or an employee who participates in peer review or occasional employee evaluation programs."

     SECTION 2. Section 10-7E-16 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 2003, Chapter 4, Section 16 and Laws 2003, Chapter 5, Section 16) is amended to read:

     "10-7E-16. DECERTIFICATION OF EXCLUSIVE REPRESENTATIVE.--

          A. A member of a labor organization or the labor organization itself may initiate decertification of a labor organization as the exclusive representative if thirty percent of the public employees in the appropriate bargaining unit make a written request to the board or local board for a decertification election. If there is only one or no dues- paying member of a labor organization in an appropriate bargaining unit, then any public employee in that bargaining unit may initiate decertification of that labor organization as the exclusive representative if thirty percent or more of the public employees in that bargaining unit make a written request to the board or local board for a decertification election. Decertification elections shall be held in a manner prescribed by rule of the board. An election shall only be valid if forty percent of the eligible employees in the bargaining unit vote in the election.

          B. When there is a collective bargaining agreement in effect, a request for a decertification election shall be made to the board or local board no earlier than ninety days and no later than sixty days before the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement; provided, however, a request for an election may be filed at any time after the expiration of the third year of a collective bargaining agreement with a term of more than three years or at any time if an appropriate bargaining unit has only one or no public employee who is a dues-paying member of the labor organization that is certified as the exclusive representative of that bargaining unit.

          C. When, within the time period prescribed in Subsection B of this section, a competing labor organization files a petition containing signatures of at least thirty percent of the public employees in the appropriate bargaining unit, a representation election rather than a decertification election shall be conducted.

          D. When an exclusive representative has been certified but no collective bargaining agreement is in effect, the board or local board shall not accept a request for a decertification election earlier than twelve months subsequent to a labor organization's certification as the exclusive representative."

     SECTION 3. Section 10-7E-24 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 2003, Chapter 4, Section 24 and Laws 2003, Chapter 5, Section 24) is amended to read:

     "10-7E-24. EXISTING COLLECTIVE BARGAINING UNITS.--

          A. Bargaining units established prior to July 1, 1999 shall continue to be recognized as appropriate bargaining units for the purposes of the Public Employee Bargaining Act. Bargaining units established between July 1, 1999 and the effective date of that act shall continue in effect only if the unit is covered by a collective bargaining agreement on [the date of this act] July 1, 2003.

          B. A labor organization that was recognized by a public employer as the exclusive representative of an appropriate bargaining unit on June 30, 1999 shall be recognized as the exclusive representative of the unit on [the effective date of the Public Employee Bargaining Act] July 1, 2003; provided, however, that the public employer shall not enter into a new collective bargaining agreement pursuant to this subsection unless the labor organization demonstrates majority support to the public employer pursuant to Section [14 of the Public Employee Bargaining Act] 10-7E-14 NMSA 1978. A labor organization [which] that attempts and fails to show majority support shall no longer be recognized as the exclusive bargaining representative of that unit.

          C. A labor organization that was certified as the exclusive representative of an appropriate bargaining unit for a governmental entity that was a public employer pursuant to any version of the Public Employee Bargaining Act that was in effect prior to July 1, 2015 but is no longer a public employer pursuant to the Public Employee Bargaining Act on and after July 1, 2015 shall continue to be recognized if there is a valid collective bargaining agreement in effect as of June 30, 2015; provided that a governmental entity that is not a public employer shall not enter into a collective bargaining agreement on or after July 1, 2015."

     SECTION 4. EFFECTIVE DATE.--The effective date of the provisions of this act is July 1, 2015.

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