2.29 Collective Bargaining Administration

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ERB -Collective Bargaining Page 1 of 4 x~~Ic~~~xe~xt ~t~1~ti~~ oil THE OREGON PUBLIC EMPLOYEE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING ACT William Greer, Administrative Law Judge, Oregon Employment Relations Board I Excerpted from Labor and Employment Law: Public Sector (copyright 1990, 1997), published by the Oregon State Bar, Continuing Legal Education. (To order a copy of the book, contact the Oregon State Bar, 5200 S.W. Meadows Road, P.O. Box 1689, Lake Oswego, Oregon 97035; phone (503) 620-0222, ext. 413, or 1-800-452-8260, ext. 413.) i The case citations in this chapter were checked for overrulings and reversals through March 1997. The citations to ORS were checked through 1995. VIII. (§1.10) LEGISLATIVE HISTORY { Public employee collective bargaining in Oregon has evolved over the past several decades. In 1959, the i legislature passed a bill that would have given public employees the right to organize and bargain, but it was vetoed by then-Governor Mark Hatfield. Another collective bargaining bill for public employees j was introduced in the 1961 session but did not get out of committee. In 1963, the legislature passed a bill that permitted but did not mandate public employee bargaining. 1963 Or Laws ch 579. The law gave employees a right to organize and bargain with their employers regarding "employment relations," which included, but was not limited to, "matters concerning wages, salaries, hours, vacations,. sick leave, holiday pay and grievance procedures." The 1963 law gave employers the right to enter into collective bargaining agreements and provided that the services of the State Conciliation Service could be used in resolving public sector labor disputes but prohibited public employee strikes. It did not provide for establishing bargaining units or for conducting representation elections, and it did not establish a definite structure for bargaining. Only a scattering of local governments began to bargain during the period, and there was no bargaining in the state service. The ~ 1963 legislation was amended in almost every subsequent legislative session. In 1965 the legislature removed public school teachers from the public sector bargaining statute and established a limited "meet and confer" law for teachers. 1965 Or Laws ch 390. The teacher statute, .however, strictly limited the scope of the mandatory subjects on which teachers could meet and confer to "matters of salaries and related economic policies affecting professional services." It provided that the respective district school boards were to establish election procedures and to certify teacher meet-and- confer committees. Another law enacted in the 1965 session required previously created civil service commissions to establish and administer procedures for designating bargaining units and conducting representation elections. 1965 Or Laws ch 543. The statute impliedly mandated collective bargaining both in the state government and in counties that were required to have civil service commissions. The state and labor organizations representing its employees signed collective bargaining agreements in 1966. In 1969, as a result of a major reorganization in state government and because of an increasing concern in the legislature about public employee bargaining, the independent State Civil Service Commission was abolished and personnel management for state service was centralized in the personnel division of the governor's Executive Department. The Civil Service Commission was retitled the Public Employe Relations Board (PERB), which was athree-member, part-time, citizen board appointed by the governor. The board had two primary responsibilities: performing the quasi judicial functions of the http://www.erb. state.or.us/histryl c.htm 3/11/2004