To amend sections 4117.01 and 4117.09 of the Revised Code to modify coverage of the Public Employees' Collective Bargaining Law with respect to township fire departments.

Section 1. That sections 4117.01 and 4117.09 of the Revised Code be amended to read as follows:

Sec. 4117.01.  As used in this chapter:

(A) "Person," in addition to those included in division (C) of section 1.59 of the Revised Code, includes employee organizations, public employees, and public employers.

(B)(1) "Public employer" means the state or any political subdivision of the state located entirely within the state, including, without limitation, any municipal corporation with a population of at least five thousand according to the most recent federal decennial census; county; township with a population of at least five thousand in the unincorporated area of the township according to the most recent federal decennial census; school district; governing authority of a community school established under Chapter 3314. of the Revised Code; state institution of higher learning; public or special district; state agency, authority, commission, or board; or other branch of public employment.

(2) In addition, with respect to members of a fire department of a township with a population of less than five thousand in the unincorporated area of the township, "public employer" means a township with a population of at least five thousand in the incorporated and unincorporated areas of the township that are served by the township fire department.

(3) For purposes of division (B) of this section, population shall be determined in accordance with the most recent federal decennial census.

(C) "Public employee" means any person holding a position by appointment or employment in the service of a public employer, including any person working pursuant to a contract between a public employer and a private employer and over whom the national labor relations board has declined jurisdiction on the basis that the involved employees are employees of a public employer, except:

(1) Persons holding elective office;

(2) Employees of the general assembly and employees of any other legislative body of the public employer whose principal duties are directly related to the legislative functions of the body;

(3) Employees on the staff of the governor or the chief executive of the public employer whose principal duties are directly related to the performance of the executive functions of the governor or the chief executive;

(4) Persons who are members of the Ohio organized militia, while training or performing duty under section 5919.29 or 5923.12 of the Revised Code;

(5) Employees of the state employment relations board;

(6) Confidential employees;

(7) Management level employees;

(8) Employees and officers of the courts, assistants to the attorney general, assistant prosecuting attorneys, and employees of the clerks of courts who perform a judicial function;

(9) Employees of a public official who act in a fiduciary capacity, appointed pursuant to section 124.11 of the Revised Code;

(10) Supervisors;

(11) Students whose primary purpose is educational training, including graduate assistants or associates, residents, interns, or other students working as part-time public employees less than fifty per cent of the normal year in the employee's bargaining unit;

(12) Employees of county boards of election;

(13) Seasonal and casual employees as determined by the state employment relations board;

(14) Part-time faculty members of an institution of higher education;

(15) Employees of the state personnel board of review;

(16) Participants in a work activity, developmental activity, or alternative work activity under sections 5107.40 to 5107.69 of the Revised Code who perform a service for a public employer that the public employer needs but is not performed by an employee of the public employer if the participant is not engaged in paid employment or subsidized employment pursuant to the activity;

(17) Employees included in the career professional service of the department of transportation under section 5501.20 of the Revised Code;

(18) Employees of community-based correctional facilities and district community-based correctional facilities created under sections 2301.51 to 2301.58 of the Revised Code who are not subject to a collective bargaining agreement on June 1, 2005.

(D) "Employee organization" means any labor or bona fide organization in which public employees participate and that exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with public employers concerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, hours, terms, and other conditions of employment.

(E) "Exclusive representative" means the employee organization certified or recognized as an exclusive representative under section 4117.05 of the Revised Code.

(F) "Supervisor" means any individual who has authority, in the interest of the public employer, to hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward, or discipline other public employees; to responsibly direct them; to adjust their grievances; or to effectively recommend such action, if the exercise of that authority is not of a merely routine or clerical nature, but requires the use of independent judgment, provided that:

(1) Employees of school districts who are department chairpersons or consulting teachers shall not be deemed supervisors;

(2) With respect to members of a police or fire department, no person shall be deemed a supervisor except the chief of the department or those individuals who, in the absence of the chief, are authorized to exercise the authority and perform the duties of the chief of the department. Where prior to June 1, 1982, a public employer pursuant to a judicial decision, rendered in litigation to which the public employer was a party, has declined to engage in collective bargaining with members of a police or fire department on the basis that those members are supervisors, those members of a police or fire department do not have the rights specified in this chapter for the purposes of future collective bargaining. The state employment relations board shall decide all disputes concerning the application of division (F)(2) of this section.

(3) With respect to faculty members of a state institution of higher education, heads of departments or divisions are supervisors; however, no other faculty member or group of faculty members is a supervisor solely because the faculty member or group of faculty members participate in decisions with respect to courses, curriculum, personnel, or other matters of academic policy;

(4) No teacher as defined in section 3319.09 of the Revised Code shall be designated as a supervisor or a management level employee unless the teacher is employed under a contract governed by section 3319.01, 3319.011, or 3319.02 of the Revised Code and is assigned to a position for which a license deemed to be for administrators under state board rules is required pursuant to section 3319.22 of the Revised Code.

(G) "To bargain collectively" means to perform the mutual obligation of the public employer, by its representatives, and the representatives of its employees to negotiate in good faith at reasonable times and places with respect to wages, hours, terms, and other conditions of employment and the continuation, modification, or deletion of an existing provision of a collective bargaining agreement, with the intention of reaching an agreement, or to resolve questions arising under the agreement. "To bargain collectively" includes executing a written contract incorporating the terms of any agreement reached. The obligation to bargain collectively does not mean that either party is compelled to agree to a proposal nor does it require the making of a concession.

(H) "Strike" means continuous concerted action in failing to report to duty; willful absence from one's position; or stoppage of work in whole from the full, faithful, and proper performance of the duties of employment, for the purpose of inducing, influencing, or coercing a change in wages, hours, terms, and other conditions of employment. "Strike" does not include a stoppage of work by employees in good faith because of dangerous or unhealthful working conditions at the place of employment that are abnormal to the place of employment.

(I) "Unauthorized strike" includes, but is not limited to, concerted action during the term or extended term of a collective bargaining agreement or during the pendency of the settlement procedures set forth in section 4117.14 of the Revised Code in failing to report to duty; willful absence from one's position; stoppage of work; slowdown, or abstinence in whole or in part from the full, faithful, and proper performance of the duties of employment for the purpose of inducing, influencing, or coercing a change in wages, hours, terms, and other conditions of employment. "Unauthorized strike" includes any such action, absence, stoppage, slowdown, or abstinence when done partially or intermittently, whether during or after the expiration of the term or extended term of a collective bargaining agreement or during or after the pendency of the settlement procedures set forth in section 4117.14 of the Revised Code.

(J) "Professional employee" means any employee engaged in work that is predominantly intellectual, involving the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment in its performance and requiring knowledge of an advanced type in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course in an institution of higher learning or a hospital, as distinguished from a general academic education or from an apprenticeship; or an employee who has completed the courses of specialized intellectual instruction and is performing related work under the supervision of a professional person to become qualified as a professional employee.

(K) "Confidential employee" means any employee who works in the personnel offices of a public employer and deals with information to be used by the public employer in collective bargaining; or any employee who works in a close continuing relationship with public officers or representatives directly participating in collective bargaining on behalf of the employer.

(L) "Management level employee" means an individual who formulates policy on behalf of the public employer, who responsibly directs the implementation of policy, or who may reasonably be required on behalf of the public employer to assist in the preparation for the conduct of collective negotiations, administer collectively negotiated agreements, or have a major role in personnel administration. Assistant superintendents, principals, and assistant principals whose employment is governed by section 3319.02 of the Revised Code are management level employees. With respect to members of a faculty of a state institution of higher education, no person is a management level employee because of the person's involvement in the formulation or implementation of academic or institution policy.

(M) "Wages" means hourly rates of pay, salaries, or other forms of compensation for services rendered.

(N) "Member of a police department" means a person who is in the employ of a police department of a municipal corporation as a full-time regular police officer as the result of an appointment from a duly established civil service eligibility list or under section 737.15 or 737.16 of the Revised Code, a full-time deputy sheriff appointed under section 311.04 of the Revised Code, a township constable appointed under section 509.01 of the Revised Code, or a member of a township police district police department appointed under section 505.49 of the Revised Code.

(O) "Members of the state highway patrol" means highway patrol troopers and radio operators appointed under section 5503.01 of the Revised Code.

(P) "Member of a fire department" means a person who is in the employ of a fire department of a municipal corporation or a township as a fire cadet, full-time regular firefighter, or promoted rank as the result of an appointment from a duly established civil service eligibility list or under section 505.38, 709.012, or 737.22 of the Revised Code.

(Q) "Day" means calendar day.

Sec. 4117.09.  (A) The parties to any collective bargaining agreement shall reduce the agreement to writing and both execute it.

(B) The agreement shall contain a provision that:

(1) Provides for a grievance procedure which may culminate with final and binding arbitration of unresolved grievances, and disputed interpretations of agreements, and which is valid and enforceable under its terms when entered into in accordance with this chapter. No publication thereof is required to make it effective. A party to the agreement may bring suits for violation of agreements or the enforcement of an award by an arbitrator in the court of common pleas of any county wherein a party resides or transacts business.

(2) Authorizes the public employer to deduct the periodic dues, initiation fees, and assessments of members of the exclusive representative upon presentation of a written deduction authorization by the employee.

(C) The agreement may contain a provision that requires as a condition of employment, on or after a mutually agreed upon probationary period or sixty days following the beginning of employment, whichever is less, or the effective date of a collective bargaining agreement, whichever is later, that the employees in the unit who are not members of the employee organization pay to the employee organization a fair share fee. The arrangement does not require any employee to become a member of the employee organization, nor shall fair share fees exceed dues paid by members of the employee organization who are in the same bargaining unit. Any public employee organization representing public employees pursuant to this chapter shall prescribe an internal procedure to determine a rebate, if any, for nonmembers which conforms to federal law, provided a nonmember makes a timely demand on the employee organization. Absent arbitrary and capricious action, such determination is conclusive on the parties except that a challenge to the determination may be filed with the state employment relations board within thirty days of the determination date specifying the arbitrary or capricious nature of the determination and the board shall review the rebate determination and decide whether it was arbitrary or capricious. The deduction of a fair share fee by the public employer from the payroll check of the employee and its payment to the employee organization is automatic and does not require the written authorization of the employee.

The internal rebate procedure shall provide for a rebate of expenditures in support of partisan politics or ideological causes not germaine germane to the work of employee organizations in the realm of collective bargaining.

Any public employee who is a member of and adheres to established and traditional tenets or teachings of a bona fide religion or religious body which has historically held conscientious objections to joining or financially supporting an employee organization and which is exempt from taxation under the provisions of the Internal Revenue Code shall not be required to join or financially support any employee organization as a condition of employment. Upon submission of proper proof of religious conviction to the board, the board shall declare the employee exempt from becoming a member of or financially supporting an employee organization. The employee shall be required, in lieu of the fair share fee, to pay an amount of money equal to the fair share fee to a nonreligious charitable fund exempt from taxation under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code mutually agreed upon by the employee and the representative of the employee organization to which the employee would otherwise be required to pay the fair share fee. The employee shall furnish to the employee organization written receipts evidencing such payment, and failure to make the payment or furnish the receipts shall subject the employee to the same sanctions as would nonpayment of dues under the applicable collective bargaining agreement.

No public employer shall agree to a provision requiring that a public employee become a member of an employee organization as a condition for securing or retaining employment.

(D) As used in this division, "teacher" means any employee of a school district certified to teach in the public schools of this state.

The agreement may contain a provision that provides for a peer review plan under which teachers in a bargaining unit or representatives of an employee organization representing teachers may, for other teachers of the same bargaining unit or teachers whom the employee organization represents, participate in assisting, instructing, reviewing, evaluating, or appraising and make recommendations or participate in decisions with respect to the retention, discharge, renewal, or nonrenewal of, the teachers covered by a peer review plan.

The participation of teachers or their employee organization representative in a peer review plan permitted under this division shall not be construed as an unfair labor practice under this chapter or as a violation of any other provision of law or rule adopted pursuant thereto.

(E) No agreement shall contain an expiration date that is later than three years from the date of execution. The parties may extend any agreement, but the extensions do not affect the expiration date of the original agreement.

(F) As used in this division, "township" means a public employer as defined in division (B)(2) of section 4117.01 of the Revised Code.

An agreement entered into between a township and an employee organization representing the members of the township's fire department shall contain a provision stating that if any incorporated municipal corporations located within the township elect to no longer receive fire protection through the township, and as a result the population served by that township's fire department becomes less than five thousand according to the most recent federal decennial census, the township, at the township's option, may terminate the agreement entered into between the township and the employee organization.

Section 2. That existing sections 4117.01 and 4117.09 of the Revised Code are hereby repealed.