26 §1322. Definitions
Title 26: LABOR AND INDUSTRY
Chapter 16: AGRICULTURAL EMPLOYEES LABOR RELATIONS ACT HEADING: PL 1997, C. 472, §1 (NEW)
§1322. Definitions
As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise indicates, the following terms have the following meanings. [1997, c. 472, §1 (NEW).]
1. Agriculture. "Agriculture" means farming in all its branches and includes but is not limited to the cultivation and tillage of the soil; dairying; the production, cultivation, growing and harvesting of any agricultural or horticultural commodities, including commodities defined as agricultural commodities in 12 United States Code, Section 1141j(g); the raising of livestock, bees, furbearing animals or poultry; and any practices, including any forestry or lumbering operations, performed by a farmer or on a farm as an incident to or in conjunction with farming operations, including preparation for market and delivery to storage, to market or to carriers for transportation to market.
[ 1997, c. 472, §1 (NEW) .]
2. Agricultural employee. "Agricultural employee" or "employee" means a person engaged in agriculture; however, this subsection may not be construed to include any person other than those employees excluded from the coverage of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, as agricultural employees, pursuant to the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 United States Code, Section 152, subsection 3. "Agricultural employee" includes any individual whose work has ceased as a consequence of, or in connection with, any current labor dispute or because of any prohibited labor practice. "Agricultural employee" includes supervisors but does not include any higher level managers or those employees whose duties necessarily imply a confidential relationship to the employer.
[ 1997, c. 472, §1 (NEW) .]
3. Agricultural employer. "Agricultural employer" or "employer" means a person or entity who directly or indirectly engages the services or suffers or permits the work of an agricultural employee, and includes any person acting on behalf of an employer directly or indirectly and any person or entity exercising control over the terms and conditions of employment. "Agricultural employer" is limited to a person or entity operating an egg processing facility that has over 500,000 laying birds and that employs more than 100 agricultural employees as defined in subsection 2.
[ 1997, c. 472, §1 (NEW) .]
4. Bargaining agent. "Bargaining agent" means a lawful organization or association, or an individual representative of an organization or association, that has as its primary purpose the representation of employees in their employment relations with employers, and that has been determined by the employer or the executive director to be the choice of the majority of the bargaining unit, referred to in this chapter as the "unit," as its representative.
[ 1997, c. 472, §1 (NEW) .]
5. Board. "Board" means the Maine Labor Relations Board.
[ 1997, c. 472, §1 (NEW) .]
6. Executive director. "Executive director" means the Executive Director of the Maine Labor Relations Board.
[ 1997, c. 472, §1 (NEW) .]
SECTION HISTORY
1997, c. 472, §1 (NEW).