SENATE, No. 4040

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

219th LEGISLATURE

 

INTRODUCED NOVEMBER 8, 2021

 


 

Sponsored by:

Senator  LINDA R. GREENSTEIN

District 14 (Mercer and Middlesex)

Senator  PATRICK J. DIEGNAN, JR.

District 18 (Middlesex)

 

 

 

 

SYNOPSIS

     Provides super conciliation for certain emergency responder service employees, and requires continuation of contract provisions during negotiations.

 

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

     As introduced.

  


An Act concerning super conciliation for certain emergency responder service employees and supplementing P.L.1941, c.100 (C.34:13A-1 et seq.).

 

     Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

     1.    As used in this act:

     “Commission” means the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission.

     “Emergency responder service employees”, or “employees” means emergency medical technicians, paramedics, public safety dispatchers, 9-1-1 operators, and other public safety telecommunicators.

     “Employer” means the State of New Jersey, any instrumentality of the State, or any of its counties, municipalities, or other political subdivisions, which employs emergency responder service employees which are included in a negotiating unit exclusively comprised or one or more types of emergency responder service employees.

 

     2.    a.  In any case in which collective negotiations between an employer and a majority representative of emergency responder service employees have failed to result in the parties reaching agreement on the terms of a negotiated agreement and the commission's mediation and factfinding procedures have been exhausted with no final agreement having been reached, the parties shall be required to utilize a super conciliator, randomly selected from a list developed by the commission.  The super conciliator shall utilize procedures, and be subject to qualifications, established by the commission.  The super conciliator shall promptly schedule proceedings to:

     (1)   Investigate and acquire all relevant information regarding the failure to reach agreement;

     (2)   Discuss with the parties their differences, and utilize means and mechanisms, including but not limited to requiring 24-hour per day negotiations, until a voluntary settlement is reached, and provide recommendations to resolve the parties’ differences; and

     (3)   Institute any other non-binding procedures deemed appropriate by the super conciliator.

     The super conciliator shall complete the proceedings not later than 90 days after the super conciliator is selected.  If the actions taken by the super conciliator fail to resolve the dispute, the super conciliator shall issue a final report not more than 30 days after the completion of the proceedings, which shall be provided to the parties promptly and made available to the public within 10 days after it issued.

     b.    The super conciliator, while engaged in the proceedings, shall not be required to disclose any files, records, reports, documents, or other papers classified as confidential which are received or prepared by the super conciliator or to testify with regard to those proceedings.  Nothing in this section shall exempt an individual from disclosing information relating to the commission of a crime.

 

     3.    Notwithstanding the expiration of a collective negotiations agreement, an impasse in negotiations, an exhaustion of the commission’s impasse procedures, or the utilization or completion of the procedures required by section 2 of P.L.      , c.      (C.      ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) to resolve disputes involving collective negotiations, and notwithstanding any law or regulation to the contrary, no employer, its representatives, or its agents shall, with respect to any collective negotiations agreement with the employer’s emergency responder service employees, unilaterally impose, modify, amend, delete or alter any terms and conditions of employment as set forth in the expired or expiring collective negotiations agreement, or unilaterally impose, modify, amend, delete, or alter any other negotiable terms and conditions of employment, without the specific written agreement of the majority representative of the employees.  Following contract expiration, and notwithstanding any law or regulation to the contrary, absent express language in a collective negotiations agreement providing that a specific term of the agreement will not continue after the expiration of the collective negotiations agreement, all terms and conditions of the agreement, including, but not limited to, the payment of salary increments, shall remain in effect following the agreement’s expiration until the parties reach agreement on a successor collective negotiations agreement

 

     4.    This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to all collective negotiations between employers and majority representatives of emergency responder service employees, except that, in the case of any collective negotiations agreement between an employer and a majority representative of the employer’s emergency responder service employees which is in effect on the effective date of the act, the provisions of this act shall apply only upon the expiration of the agreement.

 

 

STATEMENT

 

     This bill provides, in certain cases, super conciliation for emergency responder service employees, which the bill defines emergency medical technicians, paramedics, public safety dispatchers, 9-1-1 operators, and other public safety telecommunicators.  The bill also requires the continuation of existing provisions of collective negotiation agreements during negotiations.

     In any case in which collective negotiations between an employer and a majority representative of the employees have failed to result in the parties reaching agreement, and mediation and factfinding procedures of the Public Employment Relations Commission have been exhausted without an final agreement, the parties shall be required to utilize a super conciliator which shall promptly schedule proceedings to:

     1.    Investigate and acquire all relevant information regarding the failure to reach agreement;

     2.    Discuss with the parties their differences, and utilize means and mechanisms, including but not limited to requiring 24-hour per day negotiations, until a voluntary settlement is reached, and provide recommendations to resolve the parties’ differences; and

     3.    Institute any other non-binding procedures deemed appropriate by the super conciliator.

     The super conciliator is required to complete the proceedings not later than 90 day after the super conciliator is selected.  If the actions taken by the super conciliator fail to resolve the dispute, the super conciliator is required to issue a final report not more than 30 days after the completion of the investigatory proceedings, to be provided to the parties promptly and made available to the public within 10 days after it issued.