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H. B. No. 151 As Referred
As Referred
130th General Assembly | Regular Session | 2013-2014 |
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Cosponsors:
Representatives Thompson, Boose, Adams, J., Becker, Buchy, Maag, Wachtmann, Young, Lynch, Brenner, Blair, Beck, Terhar, Rosenberger, Stautberg, Hood
A BILL
To enact sections 4119.01, 4119.02, 4119.04, 4119.05,
4119.06, 4119.07, 4119.08, and 4119.99 of the
Revised Code to prohibit any requirement that
employees of private employers join or pay dues to
any employee organization and to establish civil
and criminal penalties against employers who
violate that prohibition.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:
Section 1. That sections 4119.01, 4119.02, 4119.04, 4119.05,
4119.06, 4119.07, 4119.08, and 4119.99 of the Revised Code be
enacted to read as follows:
Sec. 4119.01. As used in this chapter:
(A) "Employee" and "employer" have the same meanings as in
section 4113.51 of the Revised Code, except that "employer" does
not include the state or any agency or instrumentality of the
state, or any municipal corporation, county, township, school
district, or other political subdivision or any agency or
instrumentality of a municipal corporation, county, township,
school district, or other political subdivision.
(B) "Employee organization" means any labor or bona fide
organization in which employees participate and that exists for
the purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with employers
concerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, hours, terms, and
other conditions of employment.
(C) "Injunctive relief" includes a permanent injunction, a
temporary injunction, or a temporary restraining order.
(D) "Labor dispute" includes any controversy, regardless of
whether the disputants stand in the proximate relation of employee
or employer, that concerns any of the following:
(1) The terms or conditions of employment;
(2) Employment relations;
(3) The association or representation of persons in
negotiations for the purpose of setting, maintaining, or changing
the terms or conditions of employment;
(4) Any other controversy arising out of the respective
interests of the relationship between an employee and an employer.
Sec. 4119.02. (A) The general assembly finds that
governmental authority allows and encourages employers to organize
in corporate and other forms of capital control, and, in dealing
with these employers, an employee who is not represented by an
employee organization is helpless to exercise liberty of contract
or to protect personal freedom of labor and thus is helpless to
obtain acceptable terms and conditions of employment.
(B) The policy of this state is that the negotiation of terms
and conditions of private sector employment should result from
voluntary agreement between an employer and the employer's
employees. Therefore, each employee must be fully free to
associate, organize, and designate a representative, as the
employee chooses, for the negotiation of the terms and conditions
of employment in the private sector and must be free from
coercion, interference, or restraint by the employee's employer or
an agent of the employee's employer in designating a
representative, self-organizing, or other concerted activity for
the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or
protection.
(C) The policy of this state is that each employee must be
fully free to decide whether to associate, organize, designate a
representative, or join or assist an employee organization.
Sec. 4119.04. (A) No employer shall do any of the following:
(1) Require any employee to become or remain a member of any
employee organization;
(2) Require any employee to pay any dues, fees, assessments,
or other charges to an employee organization;
(3) Deduct from the wages, earnings, or compensation of any
employee any dues, fees, assessments, or other charges to be held
for or paid over to an employee organization unless the employer
first receives a written authorization for those deductions as
provided in division (A) of section 4119.05 of the Revised Code.
(B) An employer and an employee organization shall not enter
into an oral or written agreement, contract, or promise that
violates division (A) of this section. Any such agreement,
contract, or promise is void and unenforceable.
Sec. 4119.05. (A) An employee may authorize the employee's
employer to deduct from the employee's wages, earnings, or
compensation any dues, fees, assessments, or other charges of any
kind to be held for or paid over to an employee organization. The
authorization shall be in writing and signed by the employee.
(B) Every employer that receives a written authorization from
an employee pursuant to division (A) of this section shall
promptly notify the employee, in writing, that the employee may
revoke the authorization at any time by providing the employer
with a written notice of the revocation. The revocation becomes
effective thirty days after the employer receives the revocation.
Sec. 4119.06. (A) An employer shall post in a conspicuous
place and keep continuously displayed the notice described in
division (B) of this section. An employer shall provide a copy of
the notice to each employee at the time the employee is first
hired or rehired after a lapse of the employee's employment with
that employer.
(B) The notice required to be posted and distributed pursuant
to division (A) of this section shall read as follows:
"Under Ohio law, an employee who is employed by a private
employer may choose whether to join an employee organization
without penalty. It is unlawful for an employer and an employee
organization to enter into a contract or agreement that requires
employees to join or belong to an employee organization. It also
is unlawful for a private employer to require employees to pay
dues, fees, or charges of any kind to an employee organization as
a condition of obtaining or keeping a job. A private employer may
not discharge or otherwise discriminate against an employee
because the employee joined or refused to join an employee
organization."
Sec. 4119.07. (A) Any person who is injured or is likely to
be injured as a result of a violation of section 4119.04 of the
Revised Code may bring an action in the court of common pleas in
the county in which the violation is alleged to have occurred, and
may obtain injunctive relief and recover any actual damages the
person sustained as a result of the violation or threatened
violation.
(B) A court does not have jurisdiction to grant injunctive
relief under this section that specifically or generally prohibits
a person from doing any of the following:
(1) Ceasing or refusing to perform work or to remain in an
employment relationship, regardless of a promise to do the work or
to remain in the relationship;
(2) Becoming or remaining a member of an employer or employee
organization, regardless of a promise described in section 4113.02
of the Revised Code;
(3) Paying or giving to, or withholding from, another person
anything of value, including money, insurance, or strike or
unemployment benefits;
(4) Helping, by lawful means, another person to bring or
defend against an action similar to an action described in
division (A) of this section in a court of any state or the United
States;
(5) Publicizing, obtaining, or communicating information
about the existence of or a fact involved in a labor dispute by
any method that does not involve the act or threat of a breach of
the peace, fraud, or violence, including advertising, speaking,
and patrolling, with intimidation or coercion, a public street or
other place where a person lawfully may be present;
(6) Ceasing to patronize another person or to employ another
person;
(7) Assembling peacefully to do or to organize an act listed
in divisions (B)(1) to (6) of this section;
(8) Advising or giving another person notice of an intent to
do an act listed in divisions (B)(1) to (7) of this section;
(9) Agreeing with another person to do or not to do an act
listed in divisions (B)(1) to (8) of this section;
(10) Advising, inducing, or urging another person, without
the act or threat of fraud or violence, to do an act listed in
divisions (B)(1) to (9) of this section, regardless of a promise
described in section 4113.02 of the Revised Code;
(11) Performing an act listed in divisions (B)(1) to (10) of
this section in concert with another person on the ground that the
persons are engaged in an unlawful conspiracy.
Sec. 4119.08. Any person may file a complaint alleging a
violation of section 4119.04 of the Revised Code with the attorney
general. The attorney general shall investigate any complaints of
an alleged violation of that section. If, based on that
investigation, the attorney general has reasonable cause to
believe that an employer has violated that section, the attorney
general shall prosecute the employer for the violation.
Sec. 4119.99. Any employer or employee organization who
violates section 4119.04 of the Revised Code is guilty of a
misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment up to ninety days, a fine
up to one thousand dollars, or both.
Section 2. This act applies to all collective bargaining
agreements entered into on or after the effective date of this
act.
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