2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THREE - Executive (§§ 1 — 9311) › Chapter 51A - Labor Relations; Public Service (§§ 1451 — 1454a) › § 1451a - Definitions

For the purposes of interpretation and application of this chapter, the following terms shall have the meaning stated hereinbelow, unless another meaning can be clearly construed from the text:
(a) Administrator.— Administrator of the Central Labor Advisory and Human Resources Administration Office.
(b) Agency.— Any subdivision of the Executive Branch of the Government of Puerto Rico, such as departments, boards, commissions, administrations, offices, banks and public corporations that do not operate as private businesses; or any of their respective heads, directors, executives or persons that act in their representation.
(c) Election year.— Comprises the period of one (1) year from January 1 to December 31 in which general elections are held.
(d) Arbitration.— Procedure through which the parties, after exhausting the remedies provided in the collective bargaining agreement, submit a dispute to the consideration of an arbitrator designated by the Public Service Labor Relations Commission, to be settled.
(e) Compulsory arbitration.— Procedure through which the parties, after exhausting the conciliation procedure established in this chapter, are bound to submit the dispute on the negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement to the consideration of an arbitrator designated by the Public Service Labor Relations Commission, to decide the dispute.
(f) Fringe benefits.— Constitutes any benefit, advantage or right as a supplement to salaries granted by provision of law, regulations, or a collective bargaining agreement to the employees, that entails a cost to the agency. Some of these, for example, are contributions to medical plans, retirement systems, life insurance, as well as leaves, bonuses. reimbursements for expenses incurred in the performance of their duties.
(g) Service fee.— Payment made to the exclusive representative by the employees of the bargaining unit who have opted to not affiliate to the union of their agency. It represents the cost of those union activities needed to carry out and administer a collective bargaining agreement and its subsequent administration, which includes, among other things, the procedure to discuss complaints, grievances and arbitration whose benefits apply to all the employees of the bargaining unit.
(h) Economic clauses.— Constitutes an area of mandatory negotiation that the parties must discuss during the process leading to a collective bargaining agreement. The term includes salaries, leaves, bonuses, allocations and any other benefit or compensation whose cost to the agency can be precisely stated since the total amount depends on the hours worked by the employees.
(i) Non-economic clauses.— Constitutes an area of mandatory negotiation that the parties must discuss during the process leading to a collective bargaining agreement. The term includes deduction of dues, provisions for membership to the unions, complaints, grievances and arbitration, bargaining unit, recognition of parties, subcontracting, essential areas to the principle of merit, and any other whose cost can not be determined financially.
(j) Commission.— Public Service Labor Relations Commission.
(k) Conciliator.— Person designated by the Commission to exercise mediation and conciliation functions between the parties, in order to help resolve impasses in the collective bargaining process.
(l) Working conditions.— Constitutes an area of mandatory negotiation which the parties shall discuss during the process leading to an agreement. The term includes matters related to the work schedule, rotation of shifts, and security measures to prevent work accidents, for example.
(m) Agreement.— Agreement signed by the parties on wages, fringe benefits, working terms and conditions and other provisions regarding the form and manner that labor-management relations shall be conducted in an agency.
(n) Employee.— Person who renders services to an agency through appointment in a regular career position or in a transitory, irregular or by the day position.
(o) Employee of trust.— Person who renders services at an agency through an appointment in a position of trust.
(p) Confidential employee.— Any person who has a conflict of interest or participates significantly in the formulating and implementing of public policies, or works, directly or indirectly in connection with labor-management relations.
(q) Impasse.— A deadlock produced in the process of negotiating an agreement when one of the parties, or both, do not yield or modify their positions and it requires the intervention of a conciliator to seek a satisfactory solution of the matter in dispute.
(r) Fractioning of tasks.— Refers to the division or separation of duties corresponding to a specific position or classification in order to create another position.
(s) Strike.— Concerted action by a group of employees with the intention of interrupting, paralyzing, stopping or obstructing the work and services of an agency during a specific period of time, whether brief or prolonged, or indefinitely. A strike may be produced by the absence of the employees from the work place or by intentionally slowing down their work.
(t) Negotiation in good faith.— Attitude of the parties in the process of negotiation of an agreement which allows them to make reasonable efforts to reach an agreement regarding wages, fringe benefits and working conditions.
(u) Central Office.— The Central Labor Advisory and Human Resources Administration Office.
(v) Labor union or organization.— An organization of the employees of any agency that acts as exclusive representative for collective bargaining in reference to complaints and grievances, salaries, fringe benefits, types of salaries or wages, work hours or any other employee working conditions and terms.
(w) Parties.— Refers, on one hand, to the agency, and on the other hand to the exclusive representative of the workers of an agency in a specific situation or dispute.
(x) Employer.— Refers to an agency, as this term has been defined in this section.
(y) Prohibition period.— Period comprising the four (4) months prior to and the two (2) months following the date of general elections or the three (3) months prior to any plebiscite on the political status of Puerto Rico, during which no negotiations for a collective bargaining agreement may be conducted.
(z) Unfair labor practice.— Means all unfair labor practices, as provided in § 1452 of this title.
(aa) Merit principle.— Public procedure commitment that ensures personnel transactions whereby all career employees shall be selected, trained, promoted or retained in their employment in consideration of their merit and skill, without discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, birth, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, origin or social condition, physical disability, mental disability, veteran status, nor for their political or religious ideas or beliefs. Seniority shall be a factor in cases of equal capacity and suitability.
(bb) Productivity.— Production capacity of the employees of a body during a specific period, pursuant to the established work plan and the objectives outlined to achieve specific results at the least possible cost.
(cc) Exclusive representative.— Labor organization that has been certified by the Commission to negotiate in representation of all the employees comprised in a bargaining unit.
(dd) Supervisor.— Any employee who, exercising his discretion, has the authority to make effective recommendations regarding the imposition of disciplinary measures; or that has the habitual responsibility of assigning or directing the work, if such responsibilities arise from a law, regulations or his/her job description, regardless of whether his/her appointment is a career, confidential, transitory, probationary, temporary, irregular, by the day job, or through a contract.
(ee) Closed shop.— Means a clause which requires that an employee has to be a member or stay in a labor organization, as an indispensable requirement to obtain and retain his employment.
(ff) Union shop.— Means a clause which requires that an employee has to enter a labor organization within a specific period of time after having begun to work for the agency, which shall not exceed thirty (30) days, as an indispensable requirement to retain his/her employment.
History —Feb. 25, 1998, No. 45, § 3; Aug. 7, 2001, No. 96, § 1; May 29, 2013, No. 22, § 3.