Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act

The NLRA excludes public sector employers and employees from coverage. That leaves state constitutional law, state statutes and Executive Orders. Thus, the right to bargain collectively in the public sector varies widely by state. Many states have no collective bargaining statutes.

This may beginning to change. Congress is considering the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act, H.R. 980, which will give collective bargaining rights to public sector law enforcement personnel, EMS workers and firefighters who are not already covered by state law. The Federal Labor Relations Authority or FLRA would administer the statute, much like the NLRB does. However, these employees would not have the right to strike.

However, the importance of this statute may extend way beyond its coverage. Labor has not fared well since the 1981 PATCO strike when President Reagan fired all the air traffic comptrollers who struck. There is also pending legislation which would amend the NLRA (the Employee Free Choice Act) which is likely to be amended with a Democratic Congress. This might also signal a change in the publics attitude and perception of unions.

More information about this statute is available from this newsletter article written by a law student. Note, there is a mistake in this article which asserts that there have not been any collective bargaining statutes in the public sector enacted since 1959. New York's Taylor Law was enacted in 1967.

Adjunct Prof Blog's original posting about this statute is available here.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Hat Tip: Workplace Prof Blog  See also this posting by Workplace Prof Blog