Sec. 5-270. Collective bargaining. Definitions.

When used in sections 5-270 to 5-280, inclusive:

(a) “Employer” means the state of Connecticut, its executive and judicial branches, including, without limitation, any board, department, commission, institution, or agency of such branches or any appropriate unit thereof and any board of trustees of a state-owned or supported college or university and branches thereof, public and quasi-public state corporation, or authority established by state law, or any person or persons designated by the employer to act in its interest in dealing with employees, but shall not include the State Board of Labor Relations or the State Board of Mediation and Arbitration.

(b) “Employee” means any employee of an employer, whether or not in the classified service of the employer, except elected or appointed officials other than special deputy sheriffs, board and commission members, disability policy specialists assigned to the Council on Developmental Disabilities, managerial employees and confidential employees.

(c) “Professional employee” means: (1) Any employee engaged in work (A) predominantly intellectual and varied in character as opposed to routine mental, manual, mechanical or physical work; (B) involving the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment in its performance; (C) of such a character that the output produced or the result accomplished cannot be standardized in relation to a given time period; (D) requiring knowledge of an advanced type in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction and study in an institution of higher learning or a hospital, as distinguished from a general academic education or from an apprenticeship or from training in the performance of routine mental, manual or physical processes; or (2) any employee who has completed the courses of specialized intellectual instruction and study described in subsection (c)(1)(D) and is performing related work under the supervision of a professional person to qualify himself to become a professional employee as defined in subsection (c)(1).

(d) “Employee organization” means any lawful association, labor organization, federation or council having as a primary purpose the improvement of wages, hours and other conditions of employment among state employees.

(e) “Confidential employee” means any public employee who would have access to confidential information used in collective bargaining.

(f) “Supervisory employee” means any individual in a position in which the principal functions are characterized by not fewer than two of the following: (1) Performing such management control duties as scheduling, assigning, overseeing and reviewing the work of subordinate employees; (2) performing such duties as are distinct and dissimilar from those performed by the employees supervised; (3) exercising judgment in adjusting grievances, applying other established personnel policies and procedures and in enforcing the provisions of a collective bargaining agreement; and (4) establishing or participating in the establishment of performance standards for subordinate employees and taking corrective measures to implement those standards, provided in connection with any of the foregoing the exercise of such authority is not merely of a routine or clerical nature, but requires the use of independent judgment, and such individuals shall be employees within the meaning of subsection (b) of this section. The above criteria for supervisory positions shall not necessarily apply to police or fire departments.

(g) “Managerial employee” means any individual in a position in which the principal functions are characterized by not fewer than two of the following, provided for any position in any unit of the system of higher education, one of such two functions shall be as specified in subdivision (4) of this subsection: (1) Responsibility for direction of a subunit or facility of a major division of an agency or assignment to an agency head's staff; (2) development, implementation and evaluation of goals and objectives consistent with agency mission and policy; (3) participation in the formulation of agency policy; or (4) a major role in the administration of collective bargaining agreements or major personnel decisions, or both, including staffing, hiring, firing, evaluation, promotion and training of employees.

(P.A. 75-566, S. 1; P.A. 77-22, S. 1, 3; P.A. 81-457, S. 12; P.A. 82-454; P.A. 86-411, S. 5, 8; P.A. 97-148, S. 1, 8; P.A. 01-103, S. 1; P.A. 05-256, S. 5.)

History: P.A. 77-22 deleted legislative branch from definition of “employer” in Subsec. (a); P.A. 81-457 added Subdiv. (g), which defines “managerial employee”, and excluded them from collective bargaining by excepting them from the definition of “employee”, where previously they were specifically excluded if working less than 24 hours per week; P.A. 82-454 amended Subsec. (b) to include part-time employees within the definition of “employee”, where previously they were specifically excluded if working less than 24 hours per week; P.A. 86-411 amended Subsec. (g), removing the percentage cap on the number of managerial employees, and requiring the provisions of Subpara. (D) to be satisfied for any position in the system of higher education to be considered managerial, effective July 1, 1986, and applicable to negotiations then in progress; (Revisor's note: In 1995 the Revisors editorially substituted in Subdiv. (c) the alphabetic indicators (A), (B), (C) and (D) for (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv) for consistency with statutory usage); P.A. 97-148 amended Subsec. (b) to include special deputy sheriffs, effective July 1, 1997; P.A. 01-103 deleted former Subdiv. (2) re certain Department of Correction employees, redesignated existing Subparas. (A) to (D) as Subdivs. (1) to (4), and made conforming technical changes; P.A. 05-256 redefined “employee” in Subsec. (b) to include disability policy specialists assigned to the Council on Developmental Disabilities, effective July 1, 2005.

Notation

Cited. 184 C. 578; 226 C. 670.

Subsec. (f):

Subsec. not unconstitutionally vague. 204 C. 746.

Subsec. (g):

Subsec. not unconstitutionally vague. 204 C. 746. Language plainly and unambiguously does not include requirement that managerial employees exercise independent judgment in carrying out principal functions listed in Subdivs. (2) and (3). 296 C. 594.

Classification of managerial employees and denial to them of collective bargaining rights survives challenge on equal protection grounds; statute repels vagueness challenge, is not offensive to due process requirements. 40 CS 381.