As used in ORS § 243.650 to 243.809, unless the context requires otherwise:

Ask a legal question, get an answer ASAP!
Click here to chat with a lawyer about your rights.

(1) ‘Appropriate bargaining unit’ means the unit designated by the Employment Relations Board or voluntarily recognized by the public employer to be appropriate for collective bargaining. However, an appropriate bargaining unit may not include both academically licensed and unlicensed or nonacademically licensed school employees. Academically licensed units may include but are not limited to teachers, nurses, counselors, therapists, psychologists, child development specialists and similar positions. This limitation does not apply to any bargaining unit certified or recognized prior to June 6, 1995, or to any school district with fewer than 50 employees.

(2) ‘Board’ means the Employment Relations Board.

(3) ‘Certification’ means official recognition by the board that a labor organization is the exclusive representative for all of the employees in the appropriate bargaining unit.

(4) ‘Collective bargaining’ means the performance of the mutual obligation of a public employer and the representative of its employees to meet at reasonable times and confer in good faith with respect to employment relations for the purpose of negotiations concerning mandatory subjects of bargaining, to meet and confer in good faith in accordance with law with respect to any dispute concerning the interpretation or application of a collective bargaining agreement, and to execute written contracts incorporating agreements that have been reached on behalf of the public employer and the employees in the bargaining unit covered by such negotiations. The obligation to meet and negotiate does not compel either party to agree to a proposal or require the making of a concession. This subsection may not be construed to prohibit a public employer and a certified or recognized representative of its employees from discussing or executing written agreements regarding matters other than mandatory subjects of bargaining that are not prohibited by law as long as there is mutual agreement of the parties to discuss these matters, which are permissive subjects of bargaining.

(5) ‘Compulsory arbitration’ means the procedure whereby parties involved in a labor dispute are required by law to submit their differences to a third party for a final and binding decision.

(6) ‘Confidential employee’ means one who assists and acts in a confidential capacity to a person who formulates, determines and effectuates management policies in the area of collective bargaining.

(7)(a) ‘Employment relations’ includes, but is not limited to, matters concerning direct or indirect monetary benefits, hours, vacations, sick leave, labor organization access to and communication with represented employees, grievance procedures and other conditions of employment.

(b) ‘Employment relations’ does not include subjects determined to be permissive, nonmandatory subjects of bargaining by the Employment Relations Board prior to June 6, 1995.

(c) After June 6, 1995, ’employment relations’ does not include subjects that the Employment Relations Board determines to have a greater impact on management’s prerogative than on employee wages, hours, or other terms and conditions of employment.

(d) ‘Employment relations’ does not include subjects that have an insubstantial or de minimis effect on public employee wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment.

(e) For school district bargaining:

(A) ‘Employment relations’ includes class size and caseload limits in schools that qualify for assistance under Title I of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.

(B) ‘Employment relations’ excludes the school or educational calendar, standards of performance or criteria for evaluation of teachers, the school curriculum, reasonable dress, grooming and at-work personal conduct requirements respecting smoking, gum chewing and similar matters of personal conduct, the standards and procedures for student discipline, the time between student classes, the selection, agendas and decisions of 21st Century Schools Councils established under ORS § 329.704, requirements for expressing milk under ORS § 653.077, and any other subject proposed that is permissive under paragraphs (b), (c) and (d) of this subsection.

(f) For employee bargaining involving employees covered by ORS § 243.736 and employees of the Department of Corrections who have direct contact with adults in custody, ’employment relations’ includes safety issues that have an impact on the on-the-job safety of the employees or staffing levels that have a significant impact on the on-the-job safety of the employees.

(g) For all other employee bargaining except school district bargaining and except as provided in paragraph (f) of this subsection, ’employment relations’ excludes staffing levels and safety issues (except those staffing levels and safety issues that have a direct and substantial effect on the on-the-job safety of public employees), scheduling of services provided to the public, determination of the minimum qualifications necessary for any position, criteria for evaluation or performance appraisal, assignment of duties, workload when the effect on duties is insubstantial, reasonable dress, grooming, and at-work personal conduct requirements respecting smoking, gum chewing, and similar matters of personal conduct at work, and any other subject proposed that is permissive under paragraphs (b), (c) and (d) of this subsection.

(8) ‘Exclusive representative’ means the labor organization that, as a result of certification by the board or recognition by the employer, has the right to be the collective bargaining agent of all employees in an appropriate bargaining unit.

(9) ‘Fact-finding’ means identification of the major issues in a particular labor dispute by one or more impartial individuals who review the positions of the parties, resolve factual differences and make recommendations for settlement of the dispute.

(10) ‘Fair-share agreement’ means an agreement between the public employer and the recognized or certified bargaining representative of public employees whereby employees who are not members of the employee organization are required to make an in-lieu-of-dues payment to an employee organization except as provided in ORS § 243.666. Upon the filing with the board of a petition by 30 percent or more of the employees in an appropriate bargaining unit covered by such union security agreement declaring they desire that the agreement be rescinded, the board shall take a secret ballot of the employees in the unit and certify the results thereof to the recognized or certified bargaining representative and to the public employer. Unless a majority of the votes cast in an election favor the union security agreement, the board shall certify deauthorization of the agreement. A petition for deauthorization of a union security agreement must be filed not more than 90 calendar days after the collective bargaining agreement is executed. Only one such election may be conducted in any appropriate bargaining unit during the term of a collective bargaining agreement between a public employer and the recognized or certified bargaining representative.

(11) ‘Final offer’ means the proposed contract language and cost summary submitted to the mediator within seven days of the declaration of impasse.

(12) ‘Labor dispute’ means any controversy concerning employment relations or concerning the association or representation of persons in negotiating, fixing, maintaining, changing, or seeking to arrange terms or conditions of employment relations, regardless of whether the disputants stand in the proximate relation of employer and employee.

(13) ‘Labor organization’ means any organization that has as one of its purposes representing employees in their employment relations with public employers.

(14) ‘Last best offer package’ means the offer exchanged by parties not less than 14 days prior to the date scheduled for an interest arbitration hearing.

(15) ‘Legislative body’ means the Legislative Assembly, the city council, the county commission and any other board or commission empowered to levy taxes.

(16) ‘Managerial employee’ means an employee of the State of Oregon or a public university listed in ORS § 352.002 who possesses authority to formulate and carry out management decisions or who represents management’s interest by taking or effectively recommending discretionary actions that control or implement employer policy, and who has discretion in the performance of these management responsibilities beyond the routine discharge of duties. A ‘managerial employee’ need not act in a supervisory capacity in relation to other employees. Notwithstanding this subsection, ‘managerial employee’ does not include faculty members at a community college, college or university.

(17) ‘Mediation’ means assistance by an impartial third party in reconciling a labor dispute between the public employer and the exclusive representative regarding employment relations.

(18) ‘Payment-in-lieu-of-dues’ means an assessment to defray the cost for services by the exclusive representative in negotiations and contract administration of all persons in an appropriate bargaining unit who are not members of the organization serving as exclusive representative of the employees. The payment must be equivalent to regular union dues and assessments, if any, or must be an amount agreed upon by the public employer and the exclusive representative of the employees.

(19) ‘Public employee’ means an employee of a public employer but does not include elected officials, persons appointed to serve on boards or commissions, incarcerated persons working under Article I, section 41, of the Oregon Constitution, or persons who are confidential employees, supervisory employees or managerial employees.

(20) ‘Public employer’ means the State of Oregon, and the following political subdivisions: Cities, counties, community colleges, school districts, special districts, mass transit districts, metropolitan service districts, public service corporations or municipal corporations and public and quasi-public corporations.

(21) ‘Public employer representative’ includes any individual or individuals specifically designated by the public employer to act in its interests in all matters dealing with employee representation, collective bargaining and related issues.

(22) ‘Strike’ means a public employee’s refusal in concerted action with others to report for duty, or his or her willful absence from his or her position, or his or her stoppage of work, or his or her absence in whole or in part from the full, faithful or proper performance of his or her duties of employment, for the purpose of inducing, influencing or coercing a change in the conditions, compensation, rights, privileges or obligations of public employment; however, nothing shall limit or impair the right of any public employee to lawfully express or communicate a complaint or opinion on any matter related to the conditions of employment.

(23)(a) ‘Supervisory employee’ means any individual having authority in the interest of the employer to hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward or discipline other employees, or responsibly to direct them, or to adjust their grievances, or effectively to recommend such action, if in connection therewith, the exercise of the authority is not of a merely routine or clerical nature but requires the use of independent judgment. Failure to assert supervisory status in any Employment Relations Board proceeding or in negotiations for any collective bargaining agreement does not thereafter prevent assertion of supervisory status in any subsequent board proceeding or contract negotiation.

(b) ‘Supervisory employee’ includes a faculty member of a public university listed in ORS § 352.002 or the Oregon Health and Science University who:

(A) Is employed as a president, vice president, provost, vice provost, dean, associate dean, assistant dean, head or equivalent position; or

(B) Is employed in an administrative position without a reasonable expectation of teaching, research or other scholarly accomplishments.

(c) ‘Supervisory employee’ does not include:

(A) A nurse, charge nurse or nurse holding a similar position if that position has not traditionally been classified as supervisory;

(B) A firefighter prohibited from striking by ORS § 243.736 who assigns, transfers or directs the work of other employees but does not have the authority to hire, discharge or impose economic discipline on those employees;

(C) A faculty member of a public university listed in ORS § 352.002 or the Oregon Health and Science University who is not a faculty member described in paragraph (b) of this subsection; or

(D) An employee of the Oregon State Police who:

(i) Serves in a rank equivalent to or below the rank of sergeant;

(ii) Is prohibited from striking by ORS § 243.736; and

(iii) Assigns, transfers or directs the work of other employees but does not hire, discharge or impose economic discipline on those employees.

(24) ‘Unfair labor practice’ means the commission of an act designated an unfair labor practice in ORS § 243.672.

(25) ‘Voluntary arbitration’ means the procedure whereby parties involved in a labor dispute mutually agree to submit their differences to a third party for a final and binding decision. [Formerly 243.711; 1975 c.728 § 1; 1978 c.5 § 1; 1987 c.792 § 1; 1995 c.286 § 1; 1999 c.59 § 61; 2001 c.104 § 75; 2007 c.141 § 1a; 2007 c.144 § 3; 2013 c.302 § 1; 2014 c.15 § 1; 2015 c.99 § 1; 2015 c.767 § 65; 2017 c.553 § 1; 2019 c.146 1,2; 2019 c.213 § 127; 2019 c.429 § 7; 2020 s.s.1 c.18 2,3; 2021 c.490 1,2; 2021 c.541 5,6; 2023 c.123 § 1]