(1) If after a 150-calendar-day period of good faith negotiations over the terms of an agreement or 150 days after certification or recognition of an exclusive representative no agreement has been signed, either or both of the parties may notify the Employment Relations Board of the status of negotiations and the need for assignment of a mediator. Any period of time in which the public employer or labor organization has been found by the Employment Relations Board to have failed to bargain in good faith shall not be counted as part of the 150-day period. This provision cannot be invoked by the party found to have failed to bargain in good faith. The parties may agree to request a mediator before the end of the 150-day period. Upon receipt of such notification or request, the board shall appoint a mediator and shall notify the parties of the appointment. The 150-day period shall begin when the parties meet for the first bargaining session and each party has received the other party’s initial proposal or on an alternative date to which the parties agree in writing.

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(2) The board, upon receipt of a notification or request under subsection (1) of this section, shall render assistance to resolve the labor dispute according to the following schedule:

(a) Mediation shall be provided by the State Conciliation Service as provided by ORS § 662.405 to 662.455. Any time after 15 days of mediation, either party may declare an impasse. The mediator may declare an impasse at any time during the mediation process. Notification of an impasse shall be filed in writing with the board, and copies of the notification shall be submitted to the parties on the same day the notification is filed with the board.

(b) Within seven days of the declaration of impasse, each party shall submit to the mediator in writing the final offer of the party, including a cost summary of the offer. Upon receipt of the final offers, the mediator shall make public the final offers, including any proposed contract language and each party’s cost summary dealing with those issues, on which the parties have failed to reach agreement. Each party’s proposed contract language shall be titled ‘Final Offer.’

(c) Within 30 days after the mediator makes public the parties’ final offers, the parties may jointly petition the Employment Relations Board to appoint a fact finder. If the parties jointly petition for fact-finding, a fact finder shall be appointed and the hearing conducted as provided in ORS § 243.722.

(d) If an agreement has not been reached 30 days after the mediator makes public the final offers, or if the parties participated in fact-finding, 30 days after the receipt of the fact finder’s report, the public employer may implement all or part of its final offer, and the public employees have the right to strike. After a collective bargaining agreement has expired, and prior to agreement on a successor contract, the status quo with respect to employment relations shall be preserved until completion of impasse procedures except that no public employer shall be required to increase contributions for insurance premiums unless the expiring collective bargaining agreement provides otherwise. Merit step and longevity step pay increases shall be part of the status quo unless the expiring collective bargaining agreement expressly provides otherwise.

(3) Nothing in subsection (1) or (2) of this section shall be construed to prohibit the parties at any time from voluntarily agreeing to submit any or all of the issues in dispute to final and binding arbitration. The arbitration shall be scheduled and conducted in accordance with ORS § 243.746. The arbitration shall supersede the dispute resolution procedures set forth in ORS § 243.726 and 243.746. [1973 c.536 § 13; 1987 c.84 § 1; 1995 c.286 § 6; 2017 c.119 § 1]