(a) "Appropriate bargaining unit" or "bargaining unit" means a group of public employees designated by the Public Employment Relations Board as appropriate for representation by an employee organization for purposes of collective bargaining. (b) "Binding interest arbitration" means the procedure by which the Public Employment Relations Board shall make written findings of fact and a decision for final and binding resolution of an impasse arising out of collective bargaining. (c) "Board" means the Public Employment Relations Board established by § 4006 of Title 14 and made applicable to this chapter by § 1306 of this title. (d) "Certification" means official recognition by the Board, following a secret-ballot election, that an employee organization is the exclusive representative for all employees in an appropriate bargaining unit. (e) "Collective bargaining" means the performance of the mutual obligation of a public employer through its designated representatives and the exclusive bargaining representative to confer and negotiate in good faith with respect to terms and conditions of employment, and to execute a written contract incorporating any agreements reached. However, this obligation does not compel either party to agree to a proposal or require the making of a concession. (f) "Confidential employee" means any employee whose essential job function and advanced knowledge about the issues involved in collective bargaining would make it unduly burdensome for the employer to negotiate effectively if the employee were a member of an appropriate bargaining unit. (g) "Decertification" means the withdrawal by the Board of an employee organization's official designation as exclusive representative following a decertification election which shows that the exclusive representative no longer has the support of a majority of the members in an appropriate bargaining unit. (h) "Discretionary subject" means, for the State as an employer only, any subject covered by merit rules which apply pursuant to § 5938(c) of Title 29, and which merit rules have been waived by statute. (i) "Employee organization" means any organization which admits to membership employees of a public employer and which has as a purpose the representation of such employees in collective bargaining, and includes any person acting as an officer, representative or agent of said organization. (j) "Exclusive bargaining representative" or "exclusive representative" means the employee organization which as a result of certification by the Board has the right and responsibility to be the collective bargaining agent of all employees in that bargaining unit. (k) "Fair share fee" means a fee that a nonmember shall be required to pay to the nonmember's exclusive representative to offset the nonmember's pro rata share of the exclusive representative's expenditures. Such fee shall be equal in amount to regular membership dues that a member of the exclusive representative's affiliated organizations, provided that the exclusive representative establishes and maintains a procedure by which any nonmember fee payer may obtain a rebate. (l) "Impasse" means the failure of a public employer and the exclusive bargaining representative to reach agreement in the course of collective bargaining. (m) "Mediation" means an effort by an impartial third-party confidentially to assist in reconciling an impasse between the public employer and the exclusive bargaining representative regarding terms and conditions of employment. (n) "Nonmember" means an employee who is not a member of the exclusive representative but whom the exclusive representative is required to represent pursuant to this chapter. (o) "Public employee" or "employee" means any employee of a public employer except: (1) Any person elected by popular vote or appointed to office by the Governor; (2) Any person who is a prisoner or inmate or who is otherwise held in lawful custody by an agency of the State; (3) Any person appointed to serve on a board or commission; (4) Any employee, as defined in Chapter 40 of Title 14 of a public school employer, as defined in Chapter 40 of Title 14; (5) Any police officers and firefighters employed by the State or political subdivisions of the State or any agency thereof, or any municipal corporation, municipality, city or town located within the State or any agency thereof which, upon the affirmative legislative act of its common council or other governing body, has elected to come within Chapter 16 of this title, or which hereafter elects to come within Chapter 16 of this title. Any police officers and firefighters included in this subsection shall be subject to Chapter 16 of this title; (6) Confidential employees of the public employer; and (7) Supervisory employees of the public employer, provided however, that any supervisory position in a bargaining unit deemed to be appropriate prior to September 23, 1994, shall so continue, unless said unit is decertified in accordance with § 1311(b) of this title, or is modified in accordance with procedures authorized by § 1310(e) of this title. (p) "Public employer" or "employer" means the State, any county of the State or any agency thereof, and/or any municipal corporation, municipality, city or town located within the State or any agency thereof, which upon the affirmative legislative act of its common council or other governing body has elected to come within the former Chapter 13 of this title or which hereafter elects to come within this chapter, or which employs 25 or more full-time employees. (q) "Rebate" means that portion of a nonmember's pro rata share of the expenditures of the exclusive representative which are not made for purposes pertaining to the collective bargaining process, contract administration or pursuit of matters affecting wages, hours and other conditions of employment. (r) "Strike" means a public employee's failure, in concerted action with others, to report for duty, or a public employee's wilful absence from a public employee's position, or a public employee's stoppage or deliberate slowing down of work, or a public employee's withholding in whole or in part from the full, faithful and proper performance of a public employee's duties of employment, or a public employee's involvement in a concerted interruption of operations of a public employer for the purpose of inducing, influencing or coercing a change in the conditions, compensation rights, privileges or obligations of public employment; however, nothing shall limit or impair the right of any public employee to lawfully express or communicate a complaint or opinion on any matter related to terms and conditions of employment. (s) "Supervisory employee" means any employee of a public employer who has the authority, in the interest of the public employer, to hire, transfer, suspend, layoff, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward or discipline other employees, or responsibility to direct them, or to adjust their grievances, or effectively to recommend such actions, if the exercise of such authority is not a merely routine or clerical nature, but requires the use of independent judgment. (t) "Terms and conditions of employment" means matters concerning or related to wages, salaries, hours, grievance procedures and working conditions; provided however, that such term shall not include those matters determined by this chapter or any other law of the State to be within the exclusive prerogative of the public employer.
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