Sec. 5-275. Employee organization designated as exclusive representative. Bargaining unit determination. Petitions seeking clarification or modification of existing units.

(a)(1) On and after October 1, 1975, any interested organization may notify the State Board of Labor Relations that thirty per cent or more of the employees in a bargaining unit established under sections 5-270 to 5-280, inclusive, desire to be exclusively represented for the purposes of collective bargaining within the unit by the petitioning organization and request the designation of said organization as their exclusive representative; (2) if the board certifies that a majority of the employees in such bargaining unit desire to be so represented, said board shall agree to said designation, unless there is a challenge. To challenge, an intervening organization must show that at least ten per cent or more of the employees of the unit seek to be the exclusive representative. Any additional organization meeting said ten per cent prerequisite shall be treated, upon request, as an additional intervenor; (3) if there is a challenge, or if the board certifies that thirty per cent or more but less than a majority of employees in a bargaining unit desire to be exclusively represented by a particular organization, said board shall direct an election by secret ballot to determine whether and by which employee organization the employees desire to be represented and shall certify the results thereof. The board shall refer the petition to its agent who shall investigate the petition and issue a direction of election and conduct a secret ballot election to determine whether and by which employee organization the employees desire to be represented if he has reasonable cause to believe that a question of representation exists, or issue a recommendation to dismiss the petition if he finds that there is not such reasonable cause, or refer the petition to the board for a hearing without having conducted an election or issuing a recommendation of dismissal, in which event the board shall conduct an appropriate hearing upon due notice. The agent shall report his action to the board. The board shall issue an order confirming the agent's direction of election and certifying the results of the election, or issue an order confirming the agent's recommendation for dismissal, or order a further investigation, or provide for an appropriate hearing upon due notice. Before taking any of the aforesaid actions, the board shall provide the parties with an opportunity to file briefs on the questions at issue and shall fully consider any such briefs filed. After a hearing, the board shall order any of the aforesaid actions on the petition, or shall upon good cause order any other suitable method to determine whether and by which employee organization the employees desire to be represented. The board shall certify the results. No election shall be directed in any bargaining unit or any subdivision thereof within which in the preceding twelve-month period a valid election has been held. No election shall be directed by the board during the term of a written collective bargaining agreement, except for good cause. In any election where none of the choices on the ballot receives a majority, a runoff shall be conducted, the ballot providing for a selection between the two choices receiving the largest and second largest number of valid votes cast in the election. An employee organization which receives a majority of votes cast in an election shall be designated by the board as exclusive representative of the employees in the unit. No employee organization shall be eligible to petition for or participate in a recognition election until it has been in existence in state employment for at least six months.

(b) The board shall determine the appropriateness of a unit which shall be the public employer unit or a subdivision thereof. In determining the appropriateness of the unit, the board shall: (1) Take into consideration, but shall not limit consideration to, the following: (A) Public employees must have an identifiable community of interest, and (B) the effects of overfragmentation; (2) not decide that any unit is appropriate if (A) such unit includes both professional and nonprofessional employees, unless a majority of such professional employees vote for inclusion in such unit, or (B) such unit includes both Department of Correction employees at or above the level of lieutenant and Department of Correction employees below the level of lieutenant; (3) take into consideration that when the state is the employer, it will be bargaining on a state-wide basis unless issues involve working conditions peculiar to a given governmental employment locale; (4) permit the faculties of (A) The University of Connecticut, (B) the Connecticut State University System, and (C) the Technical Education and Career System to each comprise a separate unit, which in each case shall have the right to bargain collectively with their respective boards of trustees or their designated representatives; and (5) permit the community college faculty and the technical college faculty as they existed prior to July 1, 1992, to continue to comprise separate units, which in each case shall have the right to bargain collectively with its board of trustees or its designated representative. Nonfaculty professional staff of the above institutions may by mutual agreement be included in such bargaining units, or they may form a separate bargaining unit of their own. This section shall not be deemed to prohibit multiunit bargaining.

(c) An employee organization or an employer may file a petition with the board seeking a clarification or modification of an existing unit. The power of the board to make such clarifications and modifications shall be limited to those times when a petition for clarification or modification is filed by either an employee organization or an employer. No petition seeking a clarification or modification of an existing unit shall be considered to be timely by the board during the term of a written collective bargaining agreement, except that a petition for clarification or modification filed by an employee organization concerning either (1) a newly created position or (2) any employee who is not represented by an employee organization, may be filed at any time.

(P.A. 75-566, S. 5; P.A. 81-29, S. 2; P.A. 82-218, S. 39, 46; P.A. 89-260, S. 5, 41; P.A. 91-255, S. 1; 91-256, S. 42, 69; P.A. 92-126, S. 15, 48; P.A. 01-103, S. 2; P.A. 03-19, S. 13; P.A. 12-116, S. 87; P.A. 17-237, S. 35.)

History: P.A. 81-29 amended Subsec. (a) to provide board's agent with increased powers over petitions concerning the election of representatives, while resting final action with the board; P.A. 82-218 replaced “state colleges” with “Connecticut State University” in Subsec. (b) pursuant to reorganization of higher education system, effective March 1, 1983; P.A. 89-260 in Subsec. (b)(4) substituted “regional community colleges” for “community colleges”, “regional technical colleges” for “state technical colleges” and “regional vocational-technical schools” for “vocational schools”; P.A. 91-255 added Subsec. (c) re petitions seeking clarification or modification of existing units; P.A. 91-256 made a technical change in Subsec. (b); P.A. 92-126 added Subsec. (b)(5) retaining rights of community college and technical college faculty to have separate bargaining units; (Revisor's note: In 1995 the Revisors editorially substituted in Subdivs. (1) and (4) of Subsec. (b) the alphabetic indicators (A), (B) and (C) for (i), (ii) and (iii), as appropriate, for consistency with statutory usage); P.A. 01-103 amended Subsec. (b)(2) by designating a portion of existing provisions as Subpara. (A) and adding Subpara. (B) re appropriateness of unit if such unit includes Department of Correction employees both at or above the level of lieutenant and below the level of lieutenant; P.A. 03-19 made technical changes in Subsec. (b), effective May 12, 2003; pursuant to P.A. 12-116, “regional vocational-technical schools” was changed editorially by the Revisors to “technical high schools” in Subsec. (b), effective July 1, 2012; P.A. 17-237 amended Subsec. (b)(4)(C) by replacing “state technical high schools” with “Technical Education and Career System”, effective July 1, 2017.

Notation

Cited. 183 C. 235.