Taylor Law: Overview Employee Rights

Taylor Law: Overview Employee rights According to Section 202-203 of the Taylor Law, all public employees in the state of New York have the right to form, join and participate in, or to refrain from forming, joining, or participating in, any employee organization of their own choosing. The wording of the Taylor Law suggests that employees have the right to unionize -- but also possess the right not to belong to a union.

However, it should be noted that according to Section 201-2a, while all public employees have a membership fee deduced from their paychecks, non-members are penalized by an agency shop fee deduction according to Section 201-2b. This serves to incentivize membership. Employees are also entitled to collective bargaining rights through a union. However, under Section 210, New York state public employees are prohibited from striking. This also means that binding arbitration agreements can be imposed upon unions and employers if negotiations reach an impasse after a certain duration of time.

Employer rights Public employers in the state of New York (including state and local governments, schools, and other public works and benefits organizations) are allowed to recognize employee organizations for the purpose of collectively negotiating grievances pertaining to employment. They are also given the right to negotiate and enter into written agreements with employee organizations when determining the terms and conditions of employment under Section 204.

Administrative agency To administrate the Taylor Law, under Section 205, the governor of New York is given the ability to appoint three persons to the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) for a six-year term. The PERB has the right to establish procedures regarding the negotiation of public employee-employer disputes and to foster conditions that minimize such disputes. The agency can also conduct hearings and engage in fact-finding regarding allegations of misconduct in employee and employer relations.

Unit determination The Board is further permitted according to 205g "to conduct studies of problems involved in representation and negotiation, including, but not limited to (i) the problems of unit determination." Unit determination refers to what constitutes the 'unit' [union] of labor that is negotiating with a particular employer. For example, police officers and fire officers unions cannot unite with sanitation workers to negotiate a better contract with the city of New York.

Recognition procedures According to Section 204-2, an employee organization must be certified or recognized as the exclusive representative of all the employees in the appropriate negotiating unit.

The public employer is required to negotiate collectively with such employee organizations "in the determination of, and administration of grievances arising under, the terms and conditions of employment of the public employees as provided in this article, and to negotiate and enter into written agreements with such employee organizations in determining such terms and conditions of employment." Scope of bargaining The Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) is given the right to determine the appropriate scope of collective bargaining between representatives of employees and employers during negotiations, as part of the provisions of Section 205.

Impasse resolution procedures Employees and employers, according to Section 204a are required to meet at "reasonable times and confer in good faith" when negotiating conditions of employment. Striking is not deemed to be an acceptable method of dispute resolution under the Taylor Law. According to Section 209, an impasse is deemed to exist if the parties fail to achieve agreement at least one hundred twenty days prior to the end of the fiscal year of the public employer.

Specific provisions of Section 209 pertain to certain, select public employment bodies, such as police and fire unions, which must submit directly to binding arbitration because of the vital nature of the services they provide. The PERB can assist resolution by appointing mediators, and if this fails, it can create a fact-finding board with the power to make recommendations. If an impasse is still manifest the dispute is shifted to the chief executive officer of the government involved and to the employee organization involved.

Union security Public employees are allowed to unionize by law (and, indeed, it could be argued that the financial terms of the Taylor Law encourage them to do so). Unfair labor practices The PERB has broad authority over the recognizing, organizing, and negotiations process, and can step in at any time to counteract what it sees as improper labor practices by employers or employees.

While it cannot determine the final settlement that is reached, it can determine what the mandatory bargaining issues are, and step in if it believes either side is negotiating in bad faith. Question: What is the difference between states that have no collective bargaining policies, states that have non-comprehensive collective bargaining policies, and states that have comprehensive collective bargaining policies? Draw your answer from the text, and use examples in your answer. According.