HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 302        FILED ON: 1/9/2019

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 1596

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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PRESENTED BY:

Tackey Chan

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To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act relative to collective bargaining dues.

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PETITION OF:

HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 302        FILED ON: 1/9/2019

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 1596

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the One Hundred and Ninety-First General Court
(2019-2020)

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An Act relative to collective bargaining dues.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1. Section 10B of chapter 66 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2016 Official Edition, is hereby amended by adding the following paragraph:-

The home address, personal email address and home or mobile telephone number of an employee of an agency, executive office, department, board, commission, bureau, division or authority of the commonwealth, or of a political subdivision thereof, or of an authority established by the general court to serve a public purpose, in the custody of the governmental entity which maintains records identifying persons as falling within those categories shall not be public; provided, that the information may be disclosed only to an employee organization whose written aims and objectives on file with the department of labor relations are to represent public employees in collective bargaining under chapter 150E or under chapter 150A for employees of a public authority subject to chapter 150A by chapter 760 of the acts of 1982, a nonprofit organization for retired public employees under chapter 180, a criminal justice agency as defined in section 167 of chapter 6 or as otherwise required by law. The home address, personal email address and home or mobile telephone number of a family member of an employee, contained in a record in the custody of a government agency which maintains records identifying employees of an agency, executive office, department, board, commission, bureau, division or authority of the commonwealth, or of a political subdivision thereof, or of an authority established by the general court to serve a public purpose shall not be public; provided, that the information may be disclosed as required by law.

SECTION 2. Section 5 of chapter 150E of the General Laws, as so appearing, is hereby amended by inserting after the first paragraph the following 3 paragraphs: -

Provided, however, that notwithstanding this or any other general or special law to the contrary, the exclusive representative may require a non-member to pay for the reasonable  costs and fees, including arbitrator fees and related attorney fees  for grieving or arbitrating a matter that arises under an agreement negotiated pursuant to this section and is brought at the non-member’s request. Employee organizations may require non-members to pay any anticipated proportional costs and fees prior to a grievance or arbitration hearing. Failure to pay costs and fees shall relieve the exclusive representative of further responsibility to the non-member regarding the matter.

Notwithstanding this or any other general or special law to the contrary, an exclusive representative’s duty of fair representation to a public employee who is in the bargaining unit shall be limited to the negotiation and enforcement of the terms of agreements with the public employer.  The laws of the commonwealth shall not be construed to prohibit an employee organization from providing only to its members legal, economic or job-related services or benefits outside of the collective bargaining agreement.

SECTION 3. Chapter 150E of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 5 the following section: -

Section 5A. (a) Public employers shall provide to an employee organization access to members of the bargaining unit that the employee organization exclusively represents.  Access shall include, but shall not be limited to, the following:

(i) the right to meet with individual employees on the premises of the public employer during the work day to investigate and discuss grievances, workplace-related complaints and other workplace issues;

(ii) the right to conduct worksite meetings during lunch and other non-work breaks, and before and after the workday, on the employer’s premises to discuss workplace issues, collective bargaining negotiations, the administration of collective bargaining agreements, other matters related to the duties of an exclusive representative and internal union matters involving the governance or business of the employee organization; and

(iii) the right to meet with newly hired employees, without charge to the pay or leave time of the employees, for a minimum of 30 minutes, not later than 10 calendar days after the date of hire, during new employee orientations or, if the employer does not conduct new employee orientations, at individual or group meetings.  In the case of school employees, the employer shall notify the exclusive representative of a hiring decision not later than 10 calendar days after the date a prospective employee accepts an offer of employment, and shall provide to the exclusive representative the employee contact information identified in subsection (b).

(b) Not later than 10 calendar days after the date a prospective school employee accepts an offer of employment or after the date of hire for all other public bargaining unit employees, public employers shall provide the following contact information to an exclusive representative employee organization in spreadsheet file format or other format agreed to by the exclusive representative employee organization: name, job, title, worksite location, home address, work telephone numbers, home and personal cellular telephone numbers on file with the public employer, date of hire, work email address and personal email address on file with the public employer.

(c) Home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, bargaining units and groupings of employees and emails or other communications between employee organizations and their members are not public records and are prohibited from disclosure except as provided in clauses Twenty-sixth(o) and (p) of section 7 of chapter 4.

(d) The exclusive representative shall have the right to use the email system of a public employer to communicate with bargaining unit members regarding official union-related matters including, but not limited to, elections, results of elections, meetings and social activities; provided, that the use does not create an unreasonable burden on network capability or system administration.

(e) The exclusive representative shall have the right to use government buildings and other facilities that are owned or leased by government entities to conduct meetings with unit members regarding bargaining negotiations, the administration of collective bargaining agreements, the investigation of grievances, other workplace-related complaints and issues and internal union matters involving the governance or business of the union; provided, that the use does not interfere with governmental operations.  Meetings conducted in government buildings pursuant to this section shall not be for a purpose prohibited by section 13 and section 14 of chapter 55. An exclusive representative conducting a meeting in a government building or other government facility pursuant to this section may be charged for maintenance, security and other costs related to the use of the government building or facility that would not otherwise be incurred by the government entity.

(f) Nothing in in this section shall be construed to diminish the obligations of an employer to comply with a collective bargaining agreement that provides greater access and orientation rights than the rights established by this law.

(g) A public employer’s failure to comply with subsections (a) to (e), inclusive, shall constitute a violation of section 10(a)(5).

(h) For the purposes of this section, “exclusive representative” means an employee organization which has been designated as the exclusive representative of employees in a collective bargaining unit as defined in section 3 of chapter 150E.

SECTION 4. Section 26 of chapter 161A of the General Laws, as so appearing, is hereby amended by adding the following 3 paragraphs: -

A labor organization representing employees may act for and negotiate agreements covering all employees in the unit and shall be responsible for representing the interests of all such employees without discrimination and without regard to employee organization membership. Provided, however, that notwithstanding this or any other general or special law to the contrary, the exclusive representative may require a non-member to pay for the reasonable costs of advancing a grievance on the non-member’s behalf to arbitration, including arbitrator fees and the fees of the attorney representing the employee organization.  Employee organizations may require non-members to pay anticipated costs and fees prior to a grievance or arbitration hearing. Failure to pay costs and fees shall relieve the exclusive representative of further responsibility to the non-member regarding the grievance or arbitration matter.

Notwithstanding this section or any other general or special law to the contrary, an exclusive representative’s duty of fair representation to a public employee who is in the bargaining unit shall be limited to the negotiation and enforcement of the terms of agreements with the public employer.  The laws of the commonwealth shall not be construed to prohibit an employee organization from providing only to its members legal, economic or job-related services or benefits outside of the collective bargaining agreement.

An employee may present a grievance to that employee’s employer and have the grievance heard without intervention by the exclusive representative of the employee organization representing the employee; provided, that the exclusive representative is afforded the opportunity to be present at conferences and that any adjustment made shall not be inconsistent with the terms of an agreement then in effect between the employer and the exclusive representative.

SECTION 5. Chapter 180 of the General Laws is hereby amended by striking out sections17A, 17C, 17E and 17G and inserting in place thereof the following section: -

Section 17A. Deductions on payroll schedules may be made from the salary of an employee of an amount that the employee may specify in writing to that employee’s public employer or its representative under chapter 150E or to an employer made subject to chapter 150A by chapter 760 of the acts of 1982, for the payment of union dues or fees to a labor organization or employee organization.  The authorization for payroll deduction may be irrevocable pursuant to the terms of that authorization for a period of not longer than 1 year after the anniversary of the authorization and shall be revocable solely pursuant to the terms of revocation specified in the employee authorization. An authorization consistent with the terms of this section shall be accepted by the employer or public employer. The treasurer of the labor organization or employee organization or relief association shall notify the office of the employer or public employer responsible for implementing payroll deductions of an authorization revocation not later than 15 days after it is received.

If an authorization for payroll deduction does not specify the terms for revocation, then the authorization may be withdrawn by the employee by giving not less than 60 days’ notice in writing of that withdrawal to that employee’s employer or public employer responsible for implementing payroll deductions and by filing a copy of the notice with the treasurer of the labor organization or employee organization.

The state treasurer or the treasurer of the employer or public employer that employs the employee shall deduct from the salary of that employee the amount of union dues or fees certified to that treasurer on the payroll, and transmit the sum so deducted to the treasurer of the labor organization or employee organization; provided, that the state treasurer or the treasurer of the employer or public employer, as applicable, is satisfied that the treasurer of the employee organization or labor organization has given the employee organization or labor organization a bond, in a form approved by the commissioner of revenue, for the faithful performance of that treasurer’s duties, in a sum and with such surety or sureties as are satisfactory to the state treasurer or treasurer of the employer or public employer.  Whenever a labor organization or employee organization is certified or obtains consent recognition under chapter 150A or chapter one 150E, such deductions shall be made for dues or fees only to the certified or recognized labor organization or employee organization.

This section shall be effective in a county, city or town which has accepted it in the manner provided by section 2 of chapter 740 of the acts of 1950 or which accepts this section in the following manner: (i) in a county, by vote of the county commissioners; (ii) in a city having a Plan D or Plan E charter, by majority vote of its city council; (iii) in any other city, by vote of city council, approved by the mayor; and (iv) in a town, by vote of the board of selectmen.