Representation Fairness Restoration Act

Bill: 115-s-1217
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Isakson, Johnny [R-GA]
Introduced: 2017-05-24
Policy area: Labor and Employment
Subjects: Labor-management relations
Latest action: action_date: 2017-05-24
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Summaries:
action_date: 2017-05-24
action_desc: Introduced in Senate
text: <p><b>Representation Fairness Restoration Act</b></p> <p>This bill amends the National Labor Relations Act to replace the current legal standard for determining the appropriateness of a collective bargaining unit. Under a 2011 ruling by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in <em>Specialty Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center of Mobile</em>, the NLRB must approve a requested bargaining unit unless an employer can show that an overwhelming community of interest exists between the requested unit and some other portion of the workforce, thus allowing the formation of smaller bargaining units (i.e., micro-bargaining units). This bill requires the NLRB to determine a unit appropriate for collective bargaining if it consists of employees who share a sufficient community of interest and sets forth factors for the NLRB to consider in determining whether employees share a sufficient community of interest.</p>

tv_txt: II 115th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 1217 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES May 24, 2017 Mr. Isakson (for himself, Mr. Alexander , Mr. Corker , Mr. Cornyn , Mr. Hatch , Mr. McConnell , Mr. Perdue , Mr. Risch , Mr. Roberts , Mr. Scott , Mr. Wicker , and Mr. Boozman ) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions A BILL To amend the National Labor Relations Act to provide for appropriate designation of collective bargaining units.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Representation Fairness Restoration Act . 2. Amendment to the National Labor Relations Act Section 9(b) of the National Labor Relations Act ( 29 U.S.C. 159(b) ) is amended to read as follows: (b) In each case, prior to an election, the Board shall determine, in order to ensure to employees the fullest freedom in exercising the rights guaranteed by this Act, the unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining. Unless otherwise stated in this Act, excluding acute health care facilities, the unit appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining shall consist of employees that share a sufficient community of interest. In determining whether employees share a sufficient community of interest, the Board shall consider (1) similarity of wages, benefits, and working conditions; (2) similarity of skills and training; (3) centrality of management and common supervision; (4) extent of interchange and frequency of contact between employees; (5) integration of the work flow and interrelationship of the production process; (6) the consistency of the unit with the employer's organizational structure; (7) similarity of job functions and work; and (8) the bargaining history in the particular unit and the industry. To avoid the proliferation or fragmentation of bargaining units, employees shall not be excluded from the unit unless the interests of the group sought are sufficiently distinct from those of other employees to warrant the establishment of a separate unit. Whether additional employees should be included in a proposed unit shall be based on whether such additional employees and proposed unit members share a sufficient community of interest, with the exception of proposed accretions to an existing unit, in which the inclusion of additional employees shall be based on whether such additional employees and existing unit members share an overwhelming community of interest and the additional employees have little or no separate identity. .