To amend sections 124.391 and 4117.10 and to enact section 325.192 of the Revised Code to authorize a county employee to donate paid leave to another employee of the same county.

Section 1. That sections 124.391 and 4117.10 be amended and that section 325.192 of the Revised Code be enacted to read as follows:

Sec. 124.391.  (A) As used in this section, "paid leave" means sick leave, personal leave, or vacation leave.

(B) The director of administrative services may establish a program under which an employee paid directly by warrant of the director of budget and management may donate that employee's accrued but unused paid leave to another employee paid directly by warrant of the director of budget and management who has no accrued but unused paid leave and who has a critical need for it because of circumstances such as a serious illness or the serious illness of a member of the employee's immediate family.

If the director of administrative services establishes a leave donation program under this division, the director shall adopt rules in accordance with Chapter 119. of the Revised Code to provide for the administration of the program. These rules shall include, but not be limited to, provisions that identify the circumstances under which leave may be donated and that specify the amount, types, and value of leave that may be donated.

(C) At the discretion of the appropriate legislative authority, a county may implement a leave donation program, as provided in this section, for all county agencies or for one or more designated agencies within the county.

Sec. 325.192. A county employee, hereinafter referred to as the "donor," may donate the county employee's accrued sick, vacation, compensatory, or personal leave or a combination thereof to another employee of the same county, hereinafter referred to as the "donee," who is in critical need of the leave under the conditions specified later in this section. The donor and donee shall be employed by the same county but do not need to be employed by the same appointing authority. A donation of sick, vacation, compensatory, or personal leave or a combination thereof is in the sole discretion of a county employee. A county appointing authority may not solicit or by any means coerce a county employee to donate sick, vacation, compensatory, or personal leave to another county employee. But a county appointing authority, after having obtained written consent from the potential donee, may inform county employees generally of the potential donee's critical need for donations of sick, vacation, compensatory, or personal leave.

A donation of sick, vacation, compensatory, or personal leave shall consist of not less than eight hours of sick, vacation, compensatory, or personal leave or a combination thereof, and shall be deducted from the balance of the donor's accrued sick, vacation, compensatory, or personal leave, as the case may be. A donation may be made for only one pay period at a time. A donation is void if the intended donee is ineligible to receive a donation of leave, if the donation exceeds the amount of sick, vacation, compensatory, or personal leave the donor is entitled to use during the pay period, or if the deduction results in the donor having a combined balance of sick, vacation, compensatory, or personal leave that equals less than eighty hours. To make a donation of sick, vacation, compensatory, or personal leave or of a combination thereof, the donor shall certify, to the donor's appointing authority, the name of the donee, the donee's appointing authority, the type of leave to be donated, the hours of leave to be donated, that the donor is donating the leave voluntarily, that the donor understands that the leave will be deducted from the donor's accrued balance of sick, vacation, compensatory, or personal leave, and that the donor will have a combined balance of accrued sick, vacation, compensatory, or personal leave equal to at least eighty hours after the donation is deducted. A separate certification shall be made for each pay period in which the donor intends to make a donation of leave.

A donee is eligible to receive a donation of sick, vacation, compensatory, or personal leave only if the donee or a member of the donee's immediate family has a serious illness or injury, the donee has exhausted all sick, vacation, compensatory, or personal leave the donee had accrued, the donee is not eligible for any other paid leave under the circumstances, and the donee has applied for any workers' compensation or other insurance or disability benefit for which the donee may be eligible. (A donee's immediate family consists of any relative or in-law or other individual with regard to the care of whom the donee may use sick leave.) A donee may use donated leave for any purpose for which sick leave may be used. A donee also may use donated leave to satisfy the waiting period for workers' compensation or another insurance or disability benefit. And a donee may use donated leave to make up or to help make up the difference between the amount the donee receives through workers' compensation or another insurance or disability benefit and the amount the donee would have received if the donee had not exhausted the donee's sick, vacation, compensatory, or personal leave. A donee may not convert donated leave into a cash benefit. And if a donee is in a probationary period, donated leave does not apply toward satisfaction of the probationary period.

Donated sick, vacation, compensatory, and personal leave shall be deducted from the donor's accrued sick, vacation, compensatory, or personal leave and credited to the donee as sick leave. The donor's appointing authority and the donee's appointing authority shall provide information to the county auditor as necessary to facilitate the deduction and crediting. Donated leave shall be used in hourly increments at the rate that is the lesser of the rate at which the donor accrued the leave or the rate at which the donee would have accrued sick leave. Donated leave, regardless of its source, shall be treated as if it were sick leave. A donee using donated leave is in active pay status and accrues leave and is entitled to other benefits the same as any other comparable employee in active pay status. Any leave thus accrued shall be used before donated leave is used. Any donated leave that is unused by the donee remains credited to the donee as if it were leave accrued by the donee in active pay status.

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 donation of paid leave pursuant to section 325.192 of the Revised Code, 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.

Section 2. That existing sections 124.391 and 4117.10 of the Revised Code are hereby repealed.