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Terms Used In Vermont Statutes Title 21 Sec. 1581

  • Board: means the State Labor Relations Board established under 3 V. See
  • Collective bargaining unit: means the employees of an employer being either all of the employees, the members of a craft, or the employees of a plant or subdivision thereof. See
  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Employee: includes any employee, and is not limited to the employees of a particular employer unless this chapter explicitly states otherwise, and includes any individual whose work has ceased as a consequence of, or in connection with, any current labor dispute or because of any unfair labor practice and who has not obtained any other regular and substantially equivalent employment, but does not include an individual;

  • Employer: means any person employing five or more employees and any person acting as an agent of an employer, employing five or more employees, directly or indirectly, but does not include:

  • Labor organization: means an organization of any kind or any agency or any employee representation committee or plan in which employees participate and that exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with employees concerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, rates of pay, hours of employment, or conditions of work. See
  • Representatives: includes any individual or labor organization. See

§ 1581. Petitions for election; filing, investigations, hearings, determinations

(a) A petition may be filed with the Board, in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Board:

(1) By an employee or group of employees, or any individual or labor organization acting in their behalf, alleging that not less than 30 percent of the employees;

(A) wish to be represented for collective bargaining and that their employer declines to recognize their representative as the representative defined in section 1583 of this title; or

(B) assert that the individual or labor organization which has been certified or is being currently recognized by their employer as the bargaining representative, is no longer a representative as defined in section 1583 of this title.

(2) By an employer, alleging that one or more individuals or labor organizations have presented to him or her a claim to be recognized as the representative defined in section 1583 of this title.

(b) The Board shall investigate the petition and if it has reasonable cause to believe that a question of representation exists shall provide for an appropriate hearing before the Board itself, a member thereof, or its agents appointed for that purpose upon due notice. Written notice of the hearing shall be mailed by certified mail to the parties named in the petition not less than seven days before the hearing. If the Board finds upon the record of the hearing that a question of representation exists, it shall conduct an election by secret ballot marked at the place of election and certify to the parties, in writing, the results thereof.

(c) In determining whether or not a question of representation exists, it shall apply the same regulations and rules of decision regardless of the identity of the persons filing the petition or the kind of relief sought.

(d) Nothing in this chapter prohibits the waiving of hearings by stipulation for a consent election in conformity with regulations and rules of decision of the Board.

(e) For the purposes of this chapter, representatives of employees of a collective bargaining unit voluntarily recognized by an employer through the voluntary negotiation of an employment contract with such unit shall constitute recognized representatives of the employees until such time as any other representative is recognized under the provisions of this section or until such representatives’ authority is rescinded under section 1584 of this title. (Added 1967, No. 198, § 8; amended 1973, No. 213 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. April 3, 1974.)