New York Codes, Rules and Regulations › Title 4 - DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL SERVICE › Appendices › Appendix 4

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 28, July 10, 2024
SUMMARY OF THE RULES
OF
THE PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS BOARD
INTRODUCTION
The following is a summary of the Rules adopted under
				provisions of the Public Employees' Fair Employment Act (Taylor Law). This
				summary is designed to help public employers, public employees and employee
				organizations understand their responsibilities and rights under the Act. As
				such, it summarizes relevant aspects of the Act and of the Rules adopted by the
				New York State Public Employment Relations Board.
The criteria adopted by the Board (e.g., those relating to the
				requirements for the filing of petitions and to showings of interest) need not
				be adopted by impartial agencies operating under provisions of the Act which
				authorize local governments to enact their own procedures.
The Taylor Law and the Rules of the Board:
[*] Give public employees the right to join or refrain from
				joining any employee organization;
[*] Give public employees the right to be represented by
				employee organizations of their own choosing and to negotiate collectively with
				their public employers;
[*] Allow for the designation of persons as "managerial" or
				"confidential";
[*] Require public employers to negotiate with the duly
				recognized or certified representatives of their employees and to enter into
				written agreements with them;
[*] Oblige public employers and employee organizations to
				refrain from "improper practices" which deny to employees rights granted by the
				Act;
[*] Establish impasse procedures for the resolution of disputes
				in negotiations in the public sector;
[*] Prohibit strikes by public employees.
Fundamental to the exercise of these rights is the selection of
				organizations to represent employees in collective negotiations. The selection
				of such organizations involves two basic issues: the determination of an
				appropriate negotiating unit, and the determination of the employee
				organization which will represent the public employees in the unit determined
				to be appropriate.
These determinations may be made jointly by a public employer
				and its public employees so long as they are not disputed. The designation of
				an employee organization as negotiating agent in this manner is called
				recognition. Where the representation status of an employee organization is
				challenged or when the public employer does not grant recognition after
				receiving a request for recognition from an employee organization, the question
				involved must be resolved by the Public Employment Relations Board or by a
				local impartial agency in accordance with provisions and procedures established
				by the local government under sections
				206.1 or 212 of the Act. In the
				absence of established local government procedures under sections
				206.1 or 212 of the Act, or when
				the procedures established under section
				206.1 do not provide for resolution
				of disputes by an impartial agency (both of these sections are discussed in
				this summary), questions regarding the selection of employee organizations will
				be resolved by PERB in accordance with its own Rules.
REPRESENTATION PROCEEDINGS
When confronted with a request for recognition by one employee
				organization, an employer must initially resolve the two basic issues cited
				above: the appropriateness of the unit and the status of the employee
				organization. If the employer, after deciding upon what it believes to be the
				appropriate unit for collective negotiations, determines that the employee
				organization involved represents the employees it claims to represent within
				that unit, it should grant recognition to that employee organization. If there
				is no dissent from this determination, there is no need for PERB to become
				involved. A question concerning representation may be brought before the Board
				in the following ways:
[*] By a public employer who has received a request for
				recognition.
[*] By a public employer seeding a determination that certain
				of its employees are managerial or confidential --Such an employer may file an
				application with PERB from the first day of the fourth month through the last
				day of the fifth month after the commencement of its fiscal year.
[*] No response by the public employer to a request for
				recognition --In the event that the public employer makes no response to a
				request for recognition, the party seeking recognition may, after thirty days
				and within sixty days, file a petition for certification with PERB.
[*] Refusal by the public employer to grant recognition
				--Within thirty days thereafter, a petition for certification may be filed with
				PERB by the party which is refused recognition by the public employer.
[*] There is objection to the public employer's recognition of
				an employee organization --A petition for certification and/or decertification
				may be filed by, or on behalf of a competing employee organization, or a
				petition for decertification may be filed by am employee or group of employees,
				which has reason to believe that there has been an error either in
				establishment of the negotiating unit or in granting recognition. This petition
				must be filed within thirty days after the employer has posted and published
				notice that it has granted recognition to an employee organization. Such
				posting and publication are required immediately after the granting of
				recognition. Upon the expiration of the period during which an employee
				organization is entitled to unchallenged representation statue--A petition for
				certification or decertification may be filed during the thirty days preceding
				the expiration of this period.
PROCESSING OF PETITIONS BY PERB
Once a petition is filed with PERB, it will be reviewed by the
				Director.
1. Appropriate negotiating
			 unit --It is recognized that in many cases different parties may be able to
			 argue with varying degrees of logic that different units are appropriate. The
			 complexity of this issue was recognized by the Legislature, which included in
			 the Taylor Law a mandate for continuous study of the question. The Act does,
			 however, set forth the following criteria for determination of an appropriate
			 unit:
(a) Community of interest --This is a
			 most significant element that must be considered in determining the appropriate
			 unit in a particular case. The following will be important in this regard:
			 whether the employees sought to be grouped together are subject to common
			 working rules, personnel practices, environment or salary and benefit
			 structure. A helpful question to ask is whether any real conflict of interest
			 exists among the employees in the proposed unit.
(b) Power to reach agreement --Briefly, this
			 means that the agent of the public employer who would ordinarily deal with the
			 proposed unit should have the power to act effectively concerning the terms and
			 conditions of employment to be negotiated.
(c) Responsibilities to the public --The
			 proposed unit must be compatible with the joint responsibilities of the public
			 employer and the employees to serve the public. This criterion means that a
			 proposed negotiating unit might be inappropriate if its structure and
			 composition were found to interfere with providing a service to the public. It
			 takes into consideration the administrative convenience of the employer and
			 suggests that an excessive number of units is undesirable. On the other hand,
			 too large a unit would preclude meaningful and effective negotiations.
To summarize, the following criteria, among others, are
				considered in determining the appropriate negotiating unit in each particular
				case:
(a) the manner in which wages
			 and other terms of employment are determined;
(b) the method of job and salary
			 classification;
(c)
			 interdependence of jobs and interchange of employees;
(d) the desires of employees (this is
			 indicative of a felt community of interest);
(e) past practices regarding organization and
			 negotiations;
(f) the manner in
			 which the employer is organized to do his job;
(g) occupational differences; and
(h) the number of employee organizations with
			 which the employer might have to negotiate.