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91_HB0592
LRB9100961NTks
1 AN ACT to amend the Illinois Educational Labor Relations
2 Act by changing Section 7.
3 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
4 represented in the General Assembly:
5 Section 5. The Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act
6 is amended by changing Section 7 as follows:
7 (115 ILCS 5/7) (from Ch. 48, par. 1707)
8 Sec. 7. Recognition of exclusive bargaining
9 representatives - unit determination. The Board is empowered
10 to administer the recognition of bargaining representatives
11 of employees of public school districts, including employees
12 of districts which have entered into joint agreements, or
13 employees of public community college districts, or any State
14 college or university, and any State agency whose major
15 function is providing educational services, making certain
16 that each bargaining unit contains employees with an
17 identifiable community of interest and that no unit includes
18 both professional employees and nonprofessional employees
19 unless a majority of employees in each group vote for
20 inclusion in the unit.
21 (a) In determining the appropriateness of a unit, the
22 Board shall decide in each case, in order to ensure employees
23 the fullest freedom in exercising the rights guaranteed by
24 this Act, the unit appropriate for the purpose of collective
25 bargaining, based upon but not limited to such factors as
26 historical pattern of recognition, community of interest,
27 including employee skills and functions, degree of functional
28 integration, interchangeability and contact among employees,
29 common supervision, wages, hours and other working conditions
30 of the employees involved, and the desires of the employees.
31 Nothing in this Act, except as herein provided, shall
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1 interfere with or negate the current representation rights or
2 patterns and practices of employee organizations which have
3 historically represented employees for the purposes of
4 collective bargaining, including but not limited to the
5 negotiations of wages, hours and working conditions,
6 resolutions of employees' grievances, or resolution of
7 jurisdictional disputes, or the establishment and maintenance
8 of prevailing wage rates, unless a majority of the employees
9 so represented expresses a contrary desire under the
10 procedures set forth in this Act. This Section, however,
11 does not prohibit multi-unit bargaining. Notwithstanding the
12 above factors, where the majority of public employees of a
13 craft so decide, the Board shall designate such craft as a
14 unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining.
15 The sole appropriate bargaining unit for academic faculty
16 at the University of Illinois at Springfield shall be the
17 unit that was in existence at Sangamon State University on
18 January 1, 1995. Any decision, rule, or regulation
19 promulgated by the Board that was nullified or voided by
20 Section 50-243 of Public Act 89-4 shall be reinstated.
21 The sole appropriate bargaining unit for academic faculty
22 at the University of Illinois shall be a unit that is
23 comprised of non-supervisory academic faculty employed more
24 than half-time and that includes all tenured, tenure-track,
25 and nontenure-track faculty employed by the board of trustees
26 of that University in all of its undergraduate, graduate, and
27 professional schools and degree and non-degree programs,
28 regardless of current or historical representation rights or
29 patterns or the application of any other factors. Any
30 decision, rule, or regulation, promulgated by the Board to
31 the contrary shall be null and void.
32 (b) An educational employer may voluntarily recognize a
33 labor organization for collective bargaining purposes if that
34 organization appears to represent a majority of employees in
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1 the unit. The employer shall post notice of its intent to so
2 recognize for a period of at least 20 school days on bulletin
3 boards or other places used or reserved for employee notices.
4 Thereafter, the employer, if satisfied as to the majority
5 status of the employee organization, shall send written
6 notification of such recognition to the Board for
7 certification.
8 Within the 20 day notice period, however, any other
9 interested employee organization may petition the Board to
10 seek recognition as the exclusive representative of the unit
11 in the manner specified by rules and regulations prescribed
12 by the Board, if such interested employee organization has
13 been designated by at least 15% of the employees in an
14 appropriate bargaining unit which includes all or some of the
15 employees in the unit intended to be recognized by the
16 employer. In such event, the Board shall proceed with the
17 petition in the same manner as provided in paragraph (c) of
18 this Section.
19 (c) A labor organization may also gain recognition as
20 the exclusive representative by an election of the employees
21 in the unit. Petitions requesting an election may be filed
22 with the Board:
23 (1) by an employee or group of employees or any
24 labor organizations acting on their behalf alleging and
25 presenting evidence that 30% or more of the employees in
26 a bargaining unit wish to be represented for collective
27 bargaining or that the labor organization which has been
28 acting as the exclusive bargaining representative is no
29 longer representative of a majority of the employees in
30 the unit; or
31 (2) by an employer alleging that one or more labor
32 organizations have presented a claim to be recognized as
33 an exclusive bargaining representative of a majority of
34 the employees in an appropriate unit and that it doubts
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1 the majority status of any of the organizations or that
2 it doubts the majority status of an exclusive bargaining
3 representative.
4 The Board shall investigate the petition and if it has
5 reasonable cause to suspect that a question of representation
6 exists, it shall give notice and conduct a hearing. If it
7 finds upon the record of the hearing that a question of
8 representation exists, it shall direct an election, which
9 shall be held no later than 90 days after the date the
10 petition was filed. Nothing prohibits the waiving of
11 hearings by the parties and the conduct of consent elections.
12 (d) An order of the Board dismissing a representation
13 petition, determining and certifying that a labor
14 organization has been fairly and freely chosen by a majority
15 of employees in an appropriate bargaining unit, determining
16 and certifying that a labor organization has not been fairly
17 and freely chosen by a majority of employees in the
18 bargaining unit or certifying a labor organization as the
19 exclusive representative of employees in an appropriate
20 bargaining unit because of a determination by the Board that
21 the labor organization is the historical bargaining
22 representative of employees in the bargaining unit, is a
23 final order. Any person aggrieved by any such order issued
24 on or after the effective date of this amendatory Act of 1987
25 may apply for and obtain judicial review in accordance with
26 provisions of the Administrative Review Law, as now or
27 hereafter amended, except that such review shall be afforded
28 directly in the Appellate Court of a judicial district in
29 which the Board maintains an office. Any direct appeal to the
30 Appellate Court shall be filed within 35 days from the date
31 that a copy of the decision sought to be reviewed was served
32 upon the party affected by the decision.
33 No election may be conducted in any bargaining unit
34 during the term of a collective bargaining agreement covering
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1 such unit or subdivision thereof, except the Board may direct
2 an election after the filing of a petition between January 15
3 and March 1 of the final year of a collective bargaining
4 agreement. Nothing in this Section prohibits the negotiation
5 of a collective bargaining agreement covering a period not
6 exceeding 3 years. A collective bargaining agreement of less
7 than 3 years may be extended up to 3 years by the parties if
8 the extension is agreed to in writing before the filing of a
9 petition under this Section. In such case, the final year of
10 the extension is the final year of the collective bargaining
11 agreement. No election may be conducted in a bargaining
12 unit, or subdivision thereof, in which a valid election has
13 been held within the preceding 12 month period.
14 (Source: P.A. 88-1; 89-4, eff. 7-1-95 (eff. date changed from
15 1-1-96 by P.A. 89-24).)
16 Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
17 becoming law.