I
103D CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 5126
To amend the National Labor Relations Act, to establish the National Public
Employment Relations Commission, and to amend title I of the Employ-
ment Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to provide for joint trust-
eeship of single-employer pension plans.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SEPTEMBER 28, 1994
Mr. SANDERS (for himself and Mr. OWENS) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor
A BILL
To amend the National Labor Relations Act, to establish
the National Public Employment Relations Commission,
and to amend title I of the Employment Retirement
Income Security Act of 1974 to provide for joint trustee-
ship of single-employer pension plans.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE AND TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the
‘‘Workplace Democracy Act of 1992’’.
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for
this Act is as follows:
Sec. 1. Short title and table of contents.
Sec. 2. Declaration of purpose and policy.
Sec. 3. Application of Act.
TITLE I—GENERAL PROVISIONS REGARDING RIGHTS OF EM-
PLOYEES AND ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITY OF THE NATIONAL
LABOR RELATIONS BOARD.
Sec. 101. Right to first contract.
Sec. 102. Strikes, boycotts, and hot cargo agreements.
Sec. 103. Treatment of guards.
Sec. 104. Card recognition for collective bargaining units.
Sec. 105. Enforcement and authority of National Labor Relations Board.
Sec. 106. Repealing prohibition authority.
TITLE II—GENERAL PROVISIONS REGARDING RIGHTS OF EM-
PLOYEES AND ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITY FOR THE NATIONAL
LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Sec. 201. Definitions.
Sec. 202. National Public Employment Relations Commission.
Sec. 203. Rights of employees and employee organizations.
Sec. 204. Representatives and collective-bargaining units.
Sec. 205. Impasse in collective bargaining over the terms and conditions of em-
ployment and other matters of mutual concern relating thereto.
Sec. 206. Disputes over the interpretation or application of agreements.
Sec. 207. Strikes.
Sec. 208. Impasse procedures for firefighters and public safety officers.
Sec. 209. Strikes and firefighters and public safety officers.
Sec. 210. Unlawful acts.
Sec. 211. Prevention of unlawful acts.
Sec. 212. Applicability of this Act.
Sec. 213. Miscellaneous.
Sec. 214. Effective date.
TITLE III—GENERAL PROVISIONS REGARDING PENSION PLANS
Sec. 301. Requirements relating to trusteeship of single-employer plans.
Sec. 302. Effective date.
SEC. 2. DECLARATION OF PURPOSE AND POLICY.
(a) STATUTORY PROTECTION.—Experience in both
private and public employment indicates that the statutory
protection of the right of employees to organize and bar-
gain collectively safeguards the public interest and pro-
motes economic stability and prosperity. Such protection
facilitates and encourages the amicable settlement of dis-
putes between employees and their employers involving the
terms and conditions of employment and other matters of
mutual concern.
(b) RESTORE INTENT.—It is the purpose of this Act
to amend the National Labor Relations Act, the law which
governs the rights of workers to organize and to bargain
collectively, to reestablish its original intent, to give work-
ers the power to protect their interests in the workplace,
restore democracy, and promote the free and unobstructed
flow of commerce.
(c) PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT.—This Act prescribes cer-
tain rights and obligations of the employees of the States,
territories and possessions of the United States, and the
political subdivisions thereof, to establish procedures gov-
erning the relationship between such employees and their
employers which are designed to meet the special require-
ments and needs of public employment.
SEC. 3. APPLICATION OF ACT.
The provisions of the National Labor Relations Act
shall apply to United States companies and their subsidi-
aries operating in any country that is a signatory to a
Free Trade Agreement. Workers of such companies and
subsidiaries shall have the right to file unfair labor prac-
tice complaints against the United States parent company
The Comptroller General shall distribute a list to all agen-
cies of the United States containing the names of persons
certified by the Secretary of Labor pursuant to this sub-
section. Unless the agency of the United States concerned,
after notice and opportunity for hearing to all interested
parties, certifies to the Secretary of Labor that there is
no other source of material or services furnished by the
person affected by the Board order, no contracts shall be
awarded to such person for a reasonable, definitely stated
period of time commensurate with the seriousness of the
violation, as determined by the Secretary of Labor, but
such period shall not exceed three years. A debarment may
be removed or the period may be reduced by the Secretary
of Labor upon the submission of an application, supported
by documentary evidence, setting forth appropriate
grounds for the granting of relief, including without limi-
tation compliance with the final order found to have been
willfully violated, bona fide change of ownership or man-
agement, a fraud or misrepresentation of the charging
party: Provided, That this subparagraph shall restrict the
award of contracts solely to the products or service per-
formed at the particular facility or facilities where the will-
ful violation occurs or of the business entity legally respon-
sible for the willful violation or to the local, intermediate,
national or international labor organization legally respon-
sible for the willful violation.’’.
(b) ADDITIONAL REMEDIES.—The third sentence of
section 10(c) of the National Labor Relations Act is
amended—
(1) by striking ‘‘and’’ immediately before ‘‘to
take such affirmative action’’; and
(2) by inserting after ‘‘with or without back
pay’’ the following: ‘‘and including making employ-
ees whole for the loss of economic benefits resulting
from a violation of section 8(a)(5) and to provide
such other remedial relief’’.
(c) INJUNCTIVE RELIEF AND DAMAGES.—Section 10
of the National Labor Relations Act is amended by adding
at the end the following subsection:
‘‘(n) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (j),
the National Labor Relations Board shall use the injunc-
tion power provided under such subsection whenever the
Board determines that an employer has engaged in a will-
ful violation of the unfair labor practice provisions under
section 8.
‘‘(o) The National Labor Relations Board will assess
civil money penalties of not less than $10,000 against em-
ployers for each willful violation of the Act.
‘‘(p) Upon issuance of a complaint which alleges an
unfair labor practice under section 8 of the National
Labor Relations Act, an employer shall reinstate a dis-
charged employee pending adjudication and final review
of such complaint.’’.
(d) TREBLE DAMAGES.—Section 303 of the Manage-
ment Relations Act of 1947 is amended by adding at the
end the following new subsection:
‘‘(c) Any person who suffers financial injury by rea-
son of any violation of section 8(a)(3) of the National
Labor Relations Act may bring an action in any district
court of the United States in the district in which the de-
fendant resides or is found or has an agent, without re-
spect to the amount in controversy, and shall recover an
amount equal to 300 percent of the damages sustained
by him, and the cost of the action, including reasonable
attorneys’ fees. A final judgment or decree rendered by
the Board to the effect that a defendant has violated sec-
tion 8(a)(3) shall be prima facie evidence against such de-
fendant in any action brought by any person under this
subsection.’’.
SEC. 106. REPEALING PROHIBITION AUTHORITY.
Subsection (b) of section 14 of the National Labor
Relations Act is repealed.
TITLE II—GENERAL PROVISIONS
REGARDING RIGHTS OF EM-
PLOYEES AND ENFORCEMENT
AUTHORITY 
FOR 
THE 
NA-
TIONAL 
LABOR 
RELATIONS
BOARD
SEC. 201. DEFINITIONS.
As used in this Act:
(1) The term ‘‘person’’ includes one or more in-
dividuals, organizations, unions, associations, part-
nerships, corporations, boards, committees, commis-
sions, agencies, or other entity, or their representa-
tives.
(2) The term ‘‘employer’’ includes any State,
territory, or possession of the United States, or any
political subdivision thereof, including, without limi-
tation, any town, city, county, borough, district,
school board, board of regents, social service or wel-
fare agency, public or quasi-public corporations,
housing authority or other entity which is tax sup-
ported, and any person acting as an agent thereof.
(3) The term ‘‘employee’’ includes any person
employed by an employer, whether or not in the clas-
sified service of the employer, except the chief execu-
tive officer of the employer and other officers of the
employer appointed or elected pursuant to statute to
policymaking positions. The term shall not be lim-
ited to the employees of a particular employer, and
shall include any person whose work has ceased as
a consequence of, or in connection with, any unlaw-
ful act as defined in section 210 of this Act.
(4) The term ‘‘employee organization’’ includes
any organization, union, association, committee,
council, or group of any kind in which employees
participate, and which exists for the purpose, in
whole or in part, of bargaining collectively with em-
ployers over the terms and conditions of employment
and other matters of mutual concerns relating there-
to.
(5) The term ‘‘exclusive representative’’ in-
cludes any employee organization which has been—
(A) selected or designated pursuant to the
provisions of section 204 of this Act as the rep-
resentative of the employees in an appropriate
collective bargaining unit; or
(B) recognized by an employer prior to the
effective date of this Act as the exclusive rep-
resentative of the employees in an appropriate
collective bargaining unit.
(6) The term ‘‘supervisor’’ includes any em-
ployee having authority in the interest of an em-
ployer to hire, direct, assign, promote, reward, trans-
fer, layoff, recall, suspend, discipline, or discharge
other employees, or to adjust their grievances, or to
effectively recommend such action if in connection
with the foregoing the exercise of such authority is
not merely routine or clerical in nature but calls for
the consistent exercise of independent judgment:
Provided, That with respect to firefighters, the term
‘‘supervisor’’ shall include only those employees who
perform a preponderance of the above-specified acts
of authority.
(7) The term ‘‘professional’’ includes any em-
ployee whose work—
(A) is predominantly intellectual and var-
ied in character;
(B) requires the consistent exercise of
independent judgment;
(C) requires knowledge of an advanced na-
ture in a field of learning customarily acquired
by specialized study in an institution of higher
education or its equivalent; and