115 ILCS 5/ Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act.
(115 ILCS 5/1) (from Ch. 48, par. 1701) Sec. 1. Policy. It is the public policy of this State and the purpose of this Act to promote orderly and constructive relationships between all educational employees and their employers. Unresolved disputes between the educational employees and their employers are injurious to the public, and the General Assembly is therefore aware that adequate means must be established for minimizing them and providing for their resolution. It is the purpose of this Act to regulate labor relations between educational employers and educational employees, including the designation of educational employee representatives, negotiation of wages, hours and other conditions of employment and resolution of disputes arising under collective bargaining agreements. The General Assembly recognizes that substantial differences exist between educational employees and other public employees as a result of the uniqueness of the educational work calendar and educational work duties and the traditional and historical patterns of collective bargaining between educational employers and educational employees and that such differences demand statutory regulation of collective bargaining between educational employers and educational employees in a manner that recognizes these differences. Recognizing that harmonious relationships are required between educational employees and their employers, the General Assembly has determined that the overall policy may best be accomplished by (a) granting to educational employees the right to organize and choose freely their representatives; (b) requiring educational employers to negotiate and bargain with employee organizations representing educational employees and to enter into written agreements evidencing the result of such bargaining; and (c) establishing procedures to provide for the protection of the rights of the educational employee, the educational employer and the public. (Source: P.A. 83‑1014.) |
(115 ILCS 5/3) (from Ch. 48, par. 1703) Sec. 3. Employee rights. (a) It shall be lawful for educational employees to organize, form, join, or assist in employee organizations or engage in lawful concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid and protection or bargain collectively through representatives of their own free choice and, except as provided in Section 11, such employees shall also have the right to refrain from any or all such activities. (b) Representatives selected by educational employees in a unit appropriate for collective bargaining purposes shall be the exclusive representative of all the employees in such unit to bargain on wages, hours, terms and conditions of employment. However, any individual employee or a group of employees may at any time present grievances to their employer and have them adjusted without the intervention of the bargaining representative as long as the adjustment is not inconsistent with the terms of a collective bargaining agreement then in effect, provided that the bargaining representative has been given an opportunity to be present at such adjustment. (Source: P.A. 83‑1014.) |
(115 ILCS 5/4) (from Ch. 48, par. 1704) Sec. 4. Employer rights. Employers shall not be required to bargain over matters of inherent managerial policy, which shall include such areas of discretion or policy as the functions of the employer, standards of services, its overall budget, the organizational structure and selection of new employees and direction of employees. Employers, however, shall be required to bargain collectively with regard to policy matters directly affecting wages, hours and terms and conditions of employment as well as the impact thereon upon request by employee representatives. To preserve the rights of employers and exclusive representatives which have established collective bargaining relationships or negotiated collective bargaining agreements prior to the effective date of this Act, employers shall be required to bargain collectively with regard to any matter concerning wages, hours or conditions of employment about which they have bargained for and agreed to in a collective bargaining agreement prior to the effective date of this Act. (Source: P.A. 83‑1014.) |
(115 ILCS 5/4.5) Sec. 4.5. Subjects of collective bargaining. (a) Notwithstanding the existence of any other provision in this Act or other law, collective bargaining between an educational employer whose territorial boundaries are coterminous with those of a city having a population in excess of 500,000 and an exclusive representative of its employees may include any of the following subjects: (1) (Blank). (2) Decisions to contract with a third party for one | ||
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(3) Decisions to layoff or reduce in force employees. (4) Decisions to determine class size, class | ||
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(5) Decisions concerning use and staffing of | ||
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(b) The subject or matters described in subsection (a) are permissive subjects of bargaining between an educational employer and an exclusive representative of its employees and, for the purpose of this Act, are within the sole discretion of the educational employer to decide to bargain, provided that the educational employer is required to bargain over the impact of a decision concerning such subject or matter on the bargaining unit upon request by the exclusive representative. During this bargaining, the educational employer shall not be precluded from implementing its decision. If, after a reasonable period of bargaining, a dispute or impasse exists between the educational employer and the exclusive representative, the dispute or impasse shall be resolved exclusively as set forth in subsection (b) of Section 12 of this Act in lieu of a strike under Section 13 of this Act. (c) A provision in a collective bargaining agreement that was rendered null and void because it involved a prohibited subject of collective bargaining under this subsection (c) as this subsection (c) existed before the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 93rd General Assembly remains null and void and shall not otherwise be reinstated in any successor agreement unless the educational employer and exclusive representative otherwise agree to include an agreement reached on a subject or matter described in subsection (a) of this Section as subsection (a) existed before this amendatory Act of the 93rd General Assembly. (Source: P.A. 93‑3, eff. 4‑16‑03.) |
(115 ILCS 5/6) (from Ch. 48, par. 1706) Sec. 6. Illinois Educational Labor Mediation Roster. The Board shall establish an Illinois Educational Labor Mediation Roster, the services of which are available to the educational employer and to labor organizations for purposes of arbitration of grievances and mediation or arbitration of contract disputes. The members of the roster shall be qualified impartial individuals who are not employees of the Board. (Source: P.A. 83‑1014.) |
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(2) by an employer alleging that one or more labor | ||
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The Board shall investigate the petition and if it has reasonable cause to suspect that a question of representation exists, it shall give notice and conduct a hearing. If it finds upon the record of the hearing that a question of representation exists, it shall direct an election, which shall be held no later than 90 days after the date the petition was filed. Nothing prohibits the waiving of hearings by the parties and the conduct of consent elections. (c‑5) The Board shall designate an exclusive representative for purposes of collective bargaining when the representative demonstrates a showing of majority interest by employees in the unit. If the parties to a dispute are without agreement on the means to ascertain the choice, if any, of employee organization as their representative, the Board shall ascertain the employees' choice of employee organization, on the basis of dues deduction authorization or other evidence, or, if necessary, by conducting an election. All evidence submitted by an employee organization to the Board to ascertain an employee's choice of an employee organization is confidential and shall not be submitted to the employer for review. The Board shall ascertain the employee's choice of employee organization within 120 days after the filing of the majority interest petition; however, the Board may extend time by an additional 60 days, upon its own motion or upon the motion of a party to the proceeding. If either party provides to the Board, before the designation of a representative, clear and convincing evidence that the dues deduction authorizations, and other evidence upon which the Board would otherwise rely to ascertain the employees' choice of representative, are fraudulent or were obtained through coercion, the Board shall promptly thereafter conduct an election. The Board shall also investigate and consider a party's allegations that the dues deduction authorizations and other evidence submitted in support of a designation of representative without an election were subsequently changed, altered, withdrawn, or withheld as a result of employer fraud, coercion, or any other unfair labor practice by the employer. If the Board determines that a labor organization would have had a majority interest but for an employer's fraud, coercion, or unfair labor practice, it shall designate the labor organization as an exclusive representative without conducting an election. If a hearing is necessary to resolve any issues of representation under this Section, the Board shall conclude its hearing process and issue a certification of the entire appropriate unit not later than 120 days after the date the petition was filed. The 120‑day period may be extended one or more times by the agreement of all parties to a hearing to a date certain. (c‑6) A labor organization or an employer may file a unit clarification petition seeking to clarify an existing bargaining unit. The Board shall conclude its investigation, including any hearing process deemed necessary, and issue a certification of clarified unit or dismiss the petition not later than 120 days after the date the petition was filed. The 120‑day period may be extended one or more times by the agreement of all parties to a hearing to a date certain. (d) An order of the Board dismissing a representation petition, determining and certifying that a labor organization has been fairly and freely chosen by a majority of employees in an appropriate bargaining unit, determining and certifying that a labor organization has not been fairly and freely chosen by a majority of employees in the bargaining unit or certifying a labor organization as the exclusive representative of employees in an appropriate bargaining unit because of a determination by the Board that the labor organization is the historical bargaining representative of employees in the bargaining unit, is a final order. Any person aggrieved by any such order issued on or after the effective date of this amendatory Act of 1987 may apply for and obtain judicial review in accordance with provisions of the Administrative Review Law, as now or hereafter amended, except that such review shall be afforded directly in the Appellate Court of a judicial district in which the Board maintains an office. Any direct appeal to the Appellate Court shall be filed within 35 days from the date that a copy of the decision sought to be reviewed was served upon the party affected by the decision. No election may be conducted in any bargaining unit during the term of a collective bargaining agreement covering such unit or subdivision thereof, except the Board may direct an election after the filing of a petition between January 15 and March 1 of the final year of a collective bargaining agreement. Nothing in this Section prohibits the negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement covering a period not exceeding 3 years. A collective bargaining agreement of less than 3 years may be extended up to 3 years by the parties if the extension is agreed to in writing before the filing of a petition under this Section. In such case, the final year of the extension is the final year of the collective bargaining agreement. No election may be conducted in a bargaining unit, or subdivision thereof, in which a valid election has been held within the preceding 12 month period. (Source: P.A. 95‑331, eff. 8‑21‑07; 96‑813, eff. 10‑30‑09.) |
(115 ILCS 5/8) (from Ch. 48, par. 1708) Sec. 8. Election ‑ certification. Elections shall be by secret ballot, and conducted in accordance with rules and regulations established by the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board. An incumbent exclusive bargaining representative shall automatically be placed on any ballot with the petitioner's labor organization. An intervening labor organization may be placed on the ballot when supported by 15% or more of the employees in the bargaining unit. The Board shall give at least 30 days notice of the time and place of the election to the parties and, upon request, shall provide the parties with a list of names and addresses of persons eligible to vote in the election at least 15 days before the election. The ballot must include, as one of the alternatives, the choice of "no representative". No mail ballots are permitted except where a specific individual would otherwise be unable to cast a ballot. The labor organization receiving a majority of the ballots cast shall be certified by the Board as the exclusive bargaining representative. If the choice of "no representative" receives a majority, the employer shall not recognize any exclusive bargaining representative for at least 12 months. If none of the choices on the ballot receives a majority, a run‑off shall be conducted between the 2 choices receiving the largest number of valid votes cast in the election. The Board shall certify the results of the election within 6 working days after the final tally of votes unless a charge is filed by a party alleging that improper conduct occurred which affected the outcome of the election. The Board shall promptly investigate the allegations, and if it finds probable cause that improper conduct occurred and could have affected the outcome of the election, it shall set a hearing on the matter on a date falling within 2 weeks of when it received the charge. If it determines, after hearing, that the outcome of the election was affected by improper conduct, it shall order a new election and shall order corrective action which it considers necessary to insure the fairness of the new election. If it determines upon investigation or after hearing that the alleged improper conduct did not take place or that it did not affect the results of the election, it shall immediately certify the election results. Any labor organization that is the exclusive bargaining representative in an appropriate unit on the effective date of this Act shall continue as such until a new one is selected under this Act. (Source: P.A. 92‑206, eff. 1‑1‑02.) |
(115 ILCS 5/9) (from Ch. 48, par. 1709) Sec. 9. Board Rules. The Board shall promulgate rules and regulations governing the appropriateness of bargaining units, representation elections, employee petitions for recognition and procedures for voluntary recognition of employee organizations by employers. (Source: P.A. 83‑1014.) |
(115 ILCS 5/10) (from Ch. 48, par. 1710) Sec. 10. Duty to bargain. (a) An educational employer and the exclusive representative have the authority and the duty to bargain collectively as set forth in this Section. Collective bargaining is the performance of the mutual obligations of the educational employer and the representative of the educational employees to meet at reasonable times and confer in good faith with respect to wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment, and to execute a written contract incorporating any agreement reached by such obligation, provided such obligation does not compel either party to agree to a proposal or require the making of a concession. (b) The parties to the collective bargaining process shall not effect or implement a provision in a collective bargaining agreement if the implementation of that provision would be in violation of, or inconsistent with, or in conflict with any statute or statutes enacted by the General Assembly of Illinois. The parties to the collective bargaining process may effect or implement a provision in a collective bargaining agreement if the implementation of that provision has the effect of supplementing any provision in any statute or statutes enacted by the General Assembly of Illinois pertaining to wages, hours or other conditions of employment; provided however, no provision in a collective bargaining agreement may be effected or implemented if such provision has the effect of negating, abrogating, replacing, reducing, diminishing, or limiting in any way any employee rights, guarantees or privileges pertaining to wages, hours or other conditions of employment provided in such statutes. Any provision in a collective bargaining agreement which has the effect of negating, abrogating, replacing, reducing, diminishing or limiting in any way any employee rights, guarantees or privileges provided in an Illinois statute or statutes shall be void and unenforceable, but shall not affect the validity, enforceability and implementation of other permissible provisions of the collective bargaining agreement. (c) The collective bargaining agreement negotiated between representatives of the educational employees and the educational employer shall contain a grievance resolution procedure which shall apply to all employees in the unit and shall provide for binding arbitration of disputes concerning the administration or interpretation of the agreement. The agreement shall also contain appropriate language prohibiting strikes for the duration of the agreement. The costs of such arbitration shall be borne equally by the educational employer and the employee organization. (d) Once an agreement is reached between representatives of the educational employees and the educational employer and is ratified by both parties, the agreement shall be reduced to writing and signed by the parties. (Source: P.A. 84‑832.) |