To amend section 4117.10 and to enact sections 5906.01, 5906.02, 5906.03, and 5906.99 of the Revised Code to provide two weeks of leave for any employee who is the spouse or parent of a member of the uniformed services who is called to active duty or is injured, wounded, or hospitalized while serving in a combat zone.

Section 1. That section 4117.10 be amended and sections 5906.01, 5906.02, 5906.03, and 5906.99 of the Revised Code be enacted to read as follows:

Sec. 4117.10.  (A) An agreement between a public employer and an exclusive representative entered into pursuant to this chapter governs the wages, hours, and terms and conditions of public employment covered by the agreement. If the agreement provides for a final and binding arbitration of grievances, public employers, employees, and employee organizations are subject solely to that grievance procedure and the state personnel board of review or civil service commissions have no jurisdiction to receive and determine any appeals relating to matters that were the subject of a final and binding grievance procedure. Where no agreement exists or where an agreement makes no specification about a matter, the public employer and public employees are subject to all applicable state or local laws or ordinances pertaining to the wages, hours, and terms and conditions of employment for public employees. Laws pertaining to civil rights, affirmative action, unemployment compensation, workers' compensation, the retirement of public employees, and residency requirements, the minimum educational requirements contained in the Revised Code pertaining to public education including the requirement of a certificate by the fiscal officer of a school district pursuant to section 5705.41 of the Revised Code, the provisions of division (A) of section 124.34 of the Revised Code governing the disciplining of officers and employees who have been convicted of a felony, and the minimum standards promulgated by the state board of education pursuant to division (D) of section 3301.07 of the Revised Code prevail over conflicting provisions of agreements between employee organizations and public employers. The law pertaining to the leave of absence and compensation provided under section 5923.05 of the Revised Code prevails over any conflicting provisions of such agreements if the terms of the agreement contain benefits which are less than those contained in that section or the agreement contains no such terms and the public authority is the state or any agency, authority, commission, or board of the state or if the public authority is another entity listed in division (B) of section 4117.01 of the Revised Code that elects to provide leave of absence and compensation as provided in section 5923.05 of the Revised Code. The law pertaining to the leave established under section 5906.02 of the Revised Code prevails over any conflicting provision of an agreement between an employee organization and public employer if the terms of the agreement contain benefits that are less than those contained in section 5906.02 of the Revised Code. Except for sections 306.08, 306.12, 306.35, and 4981.22 of the Revised Code and arrangements entered into thereunder, and section 4981.21 of the Revised Code as necessary to comply with section 13(c) of the "Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964," 87 Stat. 295, 49 U.S.C.A. 1609(c), as amended, and arrangements entered into thereunder, this chapter prevails over any and all other conflicting laws, resolutions, provisions, present or future, except as otherwise specified in this chapter or as otherwise specified by the general assembly. Nothing in this section prohibits or shall be construed to invalidate the provisions of an agreement establishing supplemental workers' compensation or unemployment compensation benefits or exceeding minimum requirements contained in the Revised Code pertaining to public education or the minimum standards promulgated by the state board of education pursuant to division (D) of section 3301.07 of the Revised Code.

(B) The public employer shall submit a request for funds necessary to implement an agreement and for approval of any other matter requiring the approval of the appropriate legislative body to the legislative body within fourteen days of the date on which the parties finalize the agreement, unless otherwise specified, but if the appropriate legislative body is not in session at the time, then within fourteen days after it convenes. The legislative body must approve or reject the submission as a whole, and the submission is deemed approved if the legislative body fails to act within thirty days after the public employer submits the agreement. The parties may specify that those provisions of the agreement not requiring action by a legislative body are effective and operative in accordance with the terms of the agreement, provided there has been compliance with division (C) of this section. If the legislative body rejects the submission of the public employer, either party may reopen all or part of the entire agreement.

As used in this section, "legislative body" includes the governing board of a municipal corporation, school district, college or university, village, township, or board of county commissioners or any other body that has authority to approve the budget of their public jurisdiction and, with regard to the state, "legislative body" means the controlling board.

(C) The chief executive officer, or the chief executive officer's representative, of each municipal corporation, the designated representative of the board of education of each school district, college or university, or any other body that has authority to approve the budget of their public jurisdiction, the designated representative of the board of county commissioners and of each elected officeholder of the county whose employees are covered by the collective negotiations, and the designated representative of the village or the board of township trustees of each township is responsible for negotiations in the collective bargaining process; except that the legislative body may accept or reject a proposed collective bargaining agreement. When the matters about which there is agreement are reduced to writing and approved by the employee organization and the legislative body, the agreement is binding upon the legislative body, the employer, and the employee organization and employees covered by the agreement.

(D) There is hereby established an office of collective bargaining in the department of administrative services for the purpose of negotiating with and entering into written agreements between state agencies, departments, boards, and commissions and the exclusive representative on matters of wages, hours, terms and other conditions of employment and the continuation, modification, or deletion of an existing provision of a collective bargaining agreement. Nothing in any provision of law to the contrary shall be interpreted as excluding the bureau of workers' compensation and the industrial commission from the preceding sentence. This office shall not negotiate on behalf of other statewide elected officials or boards of trustees of state institutions of higher education who shall be considered as separate public employers for the purposes of this chapter; however, the office may negotiate on behalf of these officials or trustees where authorized by the officials or trustees. The staff of the office of collective bargaining are in the unclassified service. The director of administrative services shall fix the compensation of the staff.

The office of collective bargaining shall:

(1) Assist the director in formulating management's philosophy for public collective bargaining as well as planning bargaining strategies;

(2) Conduct negotiations with the exclusive representatives of each employee organization;

(3) Coordinate the state's resources in all mediation, fact-finding, and arbitration cases as well as in all labor disputes;

(4) Conduct systematic reviews of collective bargaining agreements for the purpose of contract negotiations;

(5) Coordinate the systematic compilation of data by all agencies that is required for negotiating purposes;

(6) Prepare and submit an annual report and other reports as requested to the governor and the general assembly on the implementation of this chapter and its impact upon state government.

Sec. 5906.01.  As used in this chapter:

(A) "Active duty" means full-time duty in the active military service of the United States or active duty pursuant to an executive order of the president of the United States, an act of the congress of the United States, or a proclamation of the governor. "Active duty" does not include active duty for training, initial active duty for training, or the period of time for which a person is absent from a position of employment for the purpose of an examination to determine the fitness of the person to perform any duty unless such period is contemporaneous with an active duty period.

(B) "Benefits" means the employment benefits, other than salary or wages, that an employer regularly provides or makes available to employees, including, but not limited to, medical insurance, disability insurance, life insurance, pension plans, and retirement plans.

(C) "Employer" means a person who employs fifteen or more employees and includes the state or any agency or instrumentality of the state, and any municipal corporation, county, township, school district, or other political subdivision of the state.

(D) "Employee" has the same meaning as in section 4113.51 of the Revised Code.

(E) "Uniformed services" means the armed forces, the Ohio organized militia when engaged in full-time national guard duty, the commissioned corps of the public health service, and any other category of persons designated by the president of the United States in time of war or emergency.

Sec. 5906.02.  (A) An employer shall allow an employee to take leave up to ten days or eighty hours, whichever is less, if all of the following conditions are satisfied:

(1) The employer has employed the employee for at least twelve consecutive months and for at least one thousand two hundred fifty hours in the twelve months immediately preceding commencement of the leave.

(2) The employee is the parent or spouse of a person who is a member of the uniformed services and who is called into active duty in the uniformed services for a period longer than thirty days.

(3) The employee gives notice to the employer that the employee intends to take leave pursuant to this section at least fourteen days prior to taking the leave.

(4) The dates on which the employee takes leave pursuant to this section occur no more than two weeks prior to or one week after the deployment date of the employee's spouse or child.

(5) The employee does not have any other leave available for the employee's use except sick leave or disability leave.

(B) An employer shall continue to provide benefits to the employee during the period of time the employee is on leave pursuant to this section. The employee shall be responsible for the same proportion of the cost of the benefits as the employee regularly pays during periods of time when the employee is not on leave. The employer is not required to pay salary or wages to the employee during the period of time the employee is on leave pursuant to this section.

Upon the completion of the leave taken pursuant to this section, the employer shall restore the employee to the position the employee held prior to taking that leave or a position with equivalent seniority, benefits, pay, and other terms and conditions of employment.

(C) An employer may require an employee requesting to use the leave established under this section to provide certification from the appropriate military authority to verify that the employee satisfies the criteria described in divisions (A)(2), (3), and (4) of this section.

Sec. 5906.03.  (A) An employer shall not interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise or attempted exercise of a right established under this chapter.

(B) An employer shall not discharge, fine, suspend, expel, discipline, or discriminate against an employee with respect to any term or condition of employment because of the employee's actual or potential exercise, or support for another employee's exercise, of any right established under this chapter. This division does not prevent an employer from taking an employment action that is independent of the exercise of a right under this chapter.

(C) An employer shall not deprive an employee who takes leave pursuant to section 5906.02 of the Revised Code of any benefit that accrued before the date that leave commences.

(D) An employer shall not require an employee to waive the rights to which the employee is entitled pursuant to this chapter.

(E) On and after the effective date of this section, an employer shall not enter into a collective bargaining agreement or employee benefit plan that limits or requires an employee to waive the rights established under this chapter. An employer shall comply with any collective bargaining agreement or employee benefit plan that provides leave benefits similar to the type established under this chapter that are greater than the leave benefits established under this chapter.

(F) An employer may provide leave benefits greater than those established under this chapter.

Sec. 5906.99.  Whoever violates this chapter is subject to a civil action for injunctive relief or any other relief that a court finds necessary to secure a right provided by this chapter.

Section 2. That existing section 4117.10 of the Revised Code is hereby repealed.

Section 3. This act does apply to employers and employees, as defined in section 5906.01 of the Revised Code as enacted by this act, who have entered into a collective bargaining agreement or other contract of employment that is in effect before the effective date of this act and that conflicts with this act, but shall apply to such employers and employees immediately upon the expiration of such conflicting agreement or contract.