There is a newer version of the New York Consolidated Laws
2006 New York Code - Resolution Of Disputes In The Course Of Collective Negotiations.
§ 209. Resolution of disputes in the course of collective
negotiations. 1. For purposes of this section, an impasse may be deemed
to exist if the parties fail to achieve agreement at least one hundred
twenty days prior to the end of the fiscal year of the public employer.
* 2. Public employers are hereby empowered to enter into written
agreements with recognized or certified employee organizations setting
forth procedures to be invoked in the event of disputes which reach an
impasse in the course of collective negotiations. Such agreements may
include the undertaking by each party to submit unresolved issues to
impartial arbitration. In the absence or upon the failure of such
procedures, public employers and employee organizations may request the
board to render assistance as provided in this section, or the board may
render such assistance on its own motion, as provided in subdivision
three of this section, or, in regard to officers or members of any
organized fire department, or any unit of the public employer which
previously was a part of an organized fire department whose primary
mission includes the prevention and control of aircraft fires, police
force or police department of any county, city, town, village or fire or
police district, or detective-investigators employed in the office of a
district attorney of a county not contained within a city with a
population of one million or more, or in regard to any organized unit of
troopers, commissioned or noncommissioned officers of the division of
state police, or in regard to investigators, senior investigators and
investigator specialists of the division of state police, or in regard
to members of collective negotiating units designated as security
services and security supervisors who are police officers or who are
employed by the state department of correctional services and are
designated as peace officers pursuant to subdivision twenty-five of
section 2.10 of the criminal procedure law, or in regard to members of
the collective negotiating unit designated as the agency law enforcement
services unit who are police officers pursuant to subdivision
thirty-four of section 1.20 of the criminal procedure law, or in regard
to organized units of deputy sheriffs who are engaged directly in
criminal law enforcement activities that aggregate more than fifty per
centum of their service as certified by the county sheriff and are
police officers pursuant to subdivision thirty-four of section 1.20 of
the criminal procedure law as certified by the municipal police training
council or Suffolk county correction officers, as provided in
subdivision four of this section.
* NB Effective until July 1, 2007
* 2. Public employers are hereby empowered to enter into written
agreements with recognized or certified employee organizations setting
forth procedures to be invoked in the event of disputes which reach an
impasse in the course of collective negotiations. Such agreements may
include the undertaking by each party to submit unresolved issues to
impartial arbitration. In the absence or upon the failure of such
procedures, public employers and employee organizations may request the
board to render assistance as provided in this section, or the board may
render such assistance on its own motion, as provided in subdivision
three of this section, or, in regard to officers or members of any
organized fire department, or any unit of the public employer which
previously was a part of an organized fire department whose primary
mission includes the prevention and control of aircraft fires, police
force or police department of any county, city, except the city of New
York, town, village or fire or police district, or in regard to
organized units of deputy sheriffs who are engaged directly in criminal
law enforcement activities that aggregate more than fifty per centum of
their service as certified by the county sheriff and are police officers
pursuant to subdivision thirty-four of section 1.20 of the criminal
procedure law as certified by the municipal police training council or
Suffolk county correction officers, as provided in subdivision four of
this section.
* NB Effective July 1, 2007
3. On request of either party or upon its own motion, as provided in
subdivision two of this section, and in the event the board determines
that an impasse exists in collective negotiations between such employee
organization and a public employer as to the conditions of employment of
public employees, the board shall render assistance as follows:
(a) to assist the parties to effect a voluntary resolution of the
dispute, the board shall appoint a mediator or mediators representative
of the public from a list of qualified persons maintained by the board;
(b) if the impasse continues, the board shall appoint a fact-finding
board of not more than three members, each representative of the public,
from a list of qualified persons maintained by the board, which
fact-finding board shall have, in addition to the powers delegated to it
by the board, the power to make public recommendations for the
resolution of the dispute;
(c) if the dispute is not resolved at least eighty days prior to the
end of the fiscal year of the public employer or by such other date
determined by the board to be appropriate, the fact-finding board,
acting by a majority of its members, (i) shall immediately transmit its
findings of fact and recommendations for resolution of the dispute to
the chief executive officer of the government involved and to the
employee organization involved, (ii) may thereafter assist the parties
to effect a voluntary resolution of the dispute, and (iii) shall within
five days of such transmission make public such findings and
recommendations;
(d) in the event that the findings of fact and recommendations are
made public by a fact-finding board appointed by the board or
established pursuant to procedures agreed upon by the parties under
subdivision two of this section, and the impasse continues, the public
employment relations board shall have the power to take whatever steps
it deems appropriate to resolve the dispute, including (i) the making of
recommendations after giving due consideration to the findings of fact
and recommendations of such fact-finding board, but no further
fact-finding board shall be appointed and (ii) upon the request of the
parties, assistance in providing for voluntary arbitration;
(e) should either the public employer or the employee organization not
accept in whole or in part the recommendations of the fact-finding
board, (i) the chief executive officer of the government involved shall,
within ten days after receipt of the findings of fact and
recommendations of the fact-finding board, submit to the legislative
body of the government involved a copy of the findings of fact and
recommendations of the fact-finding board, together with his
recommendations for settling the dispute; (ii) the employee organization
may submit to such legislative body its recommendations for settling the
dispute; (iii) the legislative body or a duly authorized committee
thereof shall forthwith conduct a public hearing at which the parties
shall be required to explain their positions with respect to the report
of the fact-finding board; and (iv) thereafter, the legislative body
shall take such action as it deems to be in the public interest,
including the interest of the public employees involved.
(f) where the public employer is a school district, a board of
cooperative educational services, a community college, the state
university of New York, or the city university of New York, the
provisions of subparagraphs (iii) and (iv) of paragraph (e) of this
subdivision shall not apply, and (i) the board may afford the parties an
opportunity to explain their positions with respect to the report of the
fact-finding board at a meeting at which the legislative body, or a duly
authorized committee thereof, may be present; (ii) thereafter, the
legislative body may take such action as is necessary and appropriate to
reach an agreement. The board may provide such assistance as may be
appropriate.
* 4. On request of either party or upon its own motion, as provided in
subdivision two of this section, and in the event the board determines
that an impasse exists in collective negotiations between such employee
organization and a public employer as to the conditions of employment of
officers or members of any organized fire department, or any other unit
of the public employer which previously was a part of an organized fire
department whose primary mission includes the prevention and control of
aircraft fires, police force or police department of any county, city,
town, village or fire or police district, and detective-investigators or
criminal investigators employed in the office of a district attorney of
a county not contained within a city with a population of one million or
more, or as to the conditions of employment of members of any organized
unit of troopers, commissioned or noncommissioned officers of the
division of state police or as to the conditions of employment of
members of any organized unit of investigators, senior investigators and
investigator specialists of the division of state police, or as to the
terms and conditions of employment of members of collective negotiating
units designated as security services and security supervisors, who are
police officers or who are employed by the state department of
correctional services and are designated as peace officers pursuant to
subdivision twenty-five of section 2.10 of the criminal procedure law,
or in regard to members of the collective negotiating unit designated as
the agency law enforcement services unit who are police officers
pursuant to subdivision thirty-four of section 1.20 of the criminal
procedure law, or as to the conditions of employment of any organized
unit of deputy sheriffs who are engaged directly in criminal law
enforcement activities that aggregate more than fifty per centum of
their service as certified by the county sheriff and are police officers
pursuant to subdivision thirty-four of section 1.20 of the criminal
procedure law as certified by the municipal police training council or
Suffolk county correction officers, the board shall render assistance as
follows:
(a) to assist the parties to effect a voluntary resolution of the
dispute, the board shall appoint a mediator from a list of qualified
persons maintained by the board;
(b) if the mediator is unable to effect settlement of the controversy
within fifteen days after his appointment, either party may petition the
board to refer the dispute to a public arbitration panel;
(c) (i) upon petition of either party, the board shall refer the
dispute to a public arbitration panel as hereinafter provided;
(ii) the public arbitration panel shall consist of one member
appointed by the public employer, one member appointed by the employee
organization and one public member appointed jointly by the public
employer and employee organization who shall be selected within ten days
after receipt by the board of a petition for creation of the arbitration
panel. If either party fails to designate its member to the public
arbitration panel, the board shall promptly, upon receipt of a request
by either party, designate a member associated in interest with the
public employer or employee organization he is to represent. Each of the
respective parties is to bear the cost of its member appointed or
designated to the arbitration panel and each of the respective parties
is to share equally the cost of the public member. If, within seven days
after the mailing date, the parties are unable to agree upon the one
public member, the board shall submit to the parties a list of
qualified, disinterested persons for the selection of the public member.
Each party shall alternately strike from the list one of the names with
the order of striking determined by lot, until the remaining one person
shall be designated as public member. This process shall be completed
within five days of receipt of this list. The parties shall notify the
board of the designated public member. The public member shall be chosen
as chairman;
(iii) the public arbitration panel shall hold hearings on all matters
related to the dispute. The parties may be heard either in person, by
counsel, or by other representatives, as they may respectively
designate. The panel may grant more than one adjournment each for each
party; provided, however, that a second request of either party and any
subsequent adjournments may be granted on request of either party,
provided that the party which requests the adjournment shall pay the
arbitrator's fee. The parties may present, either orally or in writing,
or both, statements of fact, supporting witnesses and other evidence,
and argument of their respective positions with respect to each case.
The panel shall have authority to require the production of such
additional evidence, either oral or written as it may desire from the
parties and shall provide at the request of either party that a full and
complete record be kept of any such hearings, the cost of such record to
be shared equally by the parties;
(iv) all matters presented to the public arbitration panel for its
determination shall be decided by a majority vote of the members of the
panel. The panel, prior to a vote on any issue in dispute before it,
shall, upon the joint request of its two members representing the public
employer and the employee organization respectively, refer the issues
back to the parties for further negotiations;
(v) the public arbitration panel shall make a just and reasonable
determination of the matters in dispute. In arriving at such
determination, the panel shall specify the basis for its findings,
taking into consideration, in addition to any other relevant factors,
the following:
a. comparison of the wages, hours and conditions of employment of the
employees involved in the arbitration proceeding with the wages, hours,
and conditions of employment of other employees performing similar
services or requiring similar skills under similar working conditions
and with other employees generally in public and private employment in
comparable communities.
b. the interests and welfare of the public and the financial ability
of the public employer to pay;
c. comparison of peculiarities in regard to other trades or
professions, including specifically, (1) hazards of employment; (2)
physical qualifications; (3) educational qualifications; (4) mental
qualifications; (5) job training and skills;
d. the terms of collective agreements negotiated between the parties
in the past providing for compensation and fringe benefits, including,
but not limited to, the provisions for salary, insurance and retirement
benefits, medical and hospitalization benefits, paid time off and job
security.
(vi) the determination of the public arbitration panel shall be final
and binding upon the parties for the period prescribed by the panel, but
in no event shall such period exceed two years from the termination date
of any previous collective bargaining agreement or if there is no
previous collective bargaining agreement then for a period not to exceed
two years from the date of determination by the panel. Such
determination shall not be subject to the approval of any local
legislative body or other municipal authority. Notwithstanding the
provisions of this subparagraph to the contrary, where the parties to a
public arbitration are those anticipated by the provisions of paragraph
(e) of this subdivision as established by chapter four hundred
thirty-two of the laws of nineteen hundred ninety-five, such parties may
agree to confer authority to the public arbitration panel to issue a
final and binding determination for a period up to and including four
years.
(vii) the determination of the public arbitration panel shall be
subject to review by a court of competent jurisdiction in the manner
prescribed by law.
(d) The provisions of this subdivision shall expire thirty years from
July first, nineteen hundred seventy-seven.
(e) With regard to members of any organized unit of troopers,
investigators, senior investigators, investigator specialists and
commissioned or non-commissioned officers of the division of state
police, the provisions of this section shall not apply to issues
relating to disciplinary procedures and investigations or eligibility
and assignment to details and positions, which shall be governed by
other provisions prescribed by law.
(f) With regard to any members of collective negotiating units
designated as security services or security supervisors, who are police
officers or who are employed by the state department of correctional
services and are designated as peace officers pursuant to subdivision
twenty-five of section 2.10 of the criminal procedure law, or in regard
to members of the collective negotiating unit designated as the agency
law enforcement services unit who are police officers pursuant to
subdivision thirty-four of section 1.20 of the criminal procedure law,
the provisions of this section shall only apply to the terms of
collective bargaining agreements directly relating to compensation,
including, but not limited to, salary, stipends, location pay,
insurance, medical and hospitalization benefits; and shall not apply to
non-compensatory issues including, but not limited to, job security,
disciplinary procedures and actions, deployment or scheduling, or issues
relating to eligibility for overtime compensation which shall be
governed by other provisions proscribed by law.
(g) With regard to members of any organized unit of deputy sheriffs
who are engaged directly in criminal law enforcement activities that
aggregate more than fifty per centum of their service as certified by
the county sheriff and are police officers pursuant to subdivision
thirty-four of section 1.20 of the criminal procedure law as certified
by the municipal police training council, the provisions of this section
shall only apply to the terms of collective bargaining agreements
directly relating to compensation, including, but not limited to,
salary, stipends, location pay, insurance, medical and hospitalization
benefits; and shall not apply to non-compensatory issues including, but
not limited to, job security, disciplinary procedures and actions,
deployment or scheduling, or issues relating to eligibility for overtime
compensation which shall be governed by other provisions proscribed by
law. Provided, further, that with regard to any organized unit of deputy
sheriffs who are engaged directly in criminal law enforcement activities
that aggregate more than fifty per centum of their service and are
police officers pursuant to subdivision thirty-four of section 1.20 of
the criminal procedure law as certified by the municipal police training
council, the provisions of this subdivision pertaining to interest
arbitration shall only apply in the event that the collective bargaining
agreement between the public employer and the public employee
organization has been expired for a period of not less than twelve
months and the parties have fully utilized all other impasse resolution
procedures available under this subdivision.
(h) With regard to Suffolk county correction officers the provisions
of this section shall not apply to issues relating to disciplinary
procedures and investigations or eligibility and assignment to details
and positions, which shall be governed by other provisions prescribed by
law.
* NB Expires July 1, 2007
* 5. (a) In the event that the board certifies that a voluntary
resolution of the contract negotiations between either (i) the New York
city transit authority (hereinafter referred to as TA-public employer)
and the public employee organization certified or recognized to
represent the majority of employees of such TA-public employer, or (ii)
the metropolitan transportation authority, including its subsidiaries,
the New York city transit authority, including its subsidiary, and the
Triborough bridge and tunnel authority (all hereinafter referred to as
MTA-public employer) and a public employee organization certified or
recognized to represent employees of such MTA-public employer not
subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Railway Labor Act and not
subject to the provisions of subparagraph (i) hereof, which has made an
election pursuant to paragraph (f) of this subdivision, cannot be
effected, or upon the joint request of the TA-public employer or the
MTA-public employer (hereinafter jointly referred to as public employer)
and any such affected employee organization, such board shall refer the
dispute to a public arbitration panel, consisting of one member
appointed by the public employer, one member appointed by the employee
organization and one public member appointed jointly by the public
employer and employee organization who shall be selected within ten days
after receipt by the board of a petition for creation of the arbitration
panel. If either party fails to designate its member to the public
arbitration panel, the board shall promptly, upon receipt of a request
by either party, designate a member associated in interest with the
public employer or employee organization he is to represent. Each of the
respective parties is to bear the cost of its member appointed or
designated to the arbitration panel and each of the respective parties
is to share equally the cost of the public member. If, within seven days
after the mailing date, the parties are unable to agree upon the one
public member, the board shall submit to the parties a list of
qualified, disinterested persons for the selection of the public member.
Each party shall alternately strike from the list one of the names with
the order of striking determined by lot, until the remaining one person
shall be designated as public member. This process shall be completed
within five days of receipt of this list. The parties shall notify the
board of the designated public member. The public member shall be chosen
as chairman.
(b) The arbitration panel shall hold hearings on all matters within
the scope of negotiations related to the dispute for which the panel was
appointed. The parties may be heard either in person, by counsel or by
other representatives as they may respectively designate. The parties
may present, either orally or in writing or both, statement of fact,
supporting witnesses and other evidence and argument of their respective
position with respect to each case. The panel shall have authority to
require the production of such additional evidence, either oral or
written, as it may desire from the parties and shall provide at the
request of either party that a full and complete record be kept of any
such hearings, the cost of such record to be shared equally by the
parties.
(c) All matters presented to such panel for its determination shall be
decided by a majority vote of the members of the panel. The panel, prior
to a vote on any issue in dispute before it, may refer the issue back to
the parties for further negotiations.
(d) Such panel shall make a just and reasonable determination of
matters in dispute. In arriving at such determination, the panel shall
specify the basis for its findings, taking into consideration, in
addition to any other relevant factors, the following:
(i) comparison of the wages, hours, fringe benefits, conditions and
characteristics of employment of the public employees involved in the
impasse proceeding with the wages, hours, fringe benefits, conditions
and characteristics of employment of other employees performing similar
work and other employees generally in public or private employment in
New York city or comparable communities;
(ii) the overall compensation paid to the employees involved in the
impasse proceeding, including direct wage compensation, overtime and
premium pay, vacations, holidays and other excused time, insurance,
pensions, medical and hospitalization benefits, food and apparel
furnished, and all other benefits received;
(iii) the impact of the panel's award on the financial ability of the
public employer to pay, on the present fares and on the continued
provision of services to the public;
(iv) changes in the average consumer prices for goods and services,
commonly known as the cost of living;
(v) the interest and welfare of the public; and
(vi) such other factors as are normally and customarily considered in
the determination of wages, hours, fringe benefits and other working
conditions in collective negotiations or impasse panel proceedings.
(e) The panel shall have full authority to resolve the matters in
dispute before it and issue a determination which shall be final and
binding upon the parties, notwithstanding any other provision of this
article. Except for the purposes of judicial review, any provision of a
determination of the arbitration panel, the implementation of which
requires an enactment of law, shall not become binding until the
appropriate legislative body enacts such law.
(f) (i) Within sixty days of the enactment of this provision, and only
within such time period, any such public employee organization described
in subparagraph (ii) of paragraph (a) of this subdivision may elect to
be covered by the provisions of this section by filing in writing a no-
tice of participation with the chairman of the board and the chairman of
the metropolitan transportation authority.
(ii) Within sixty days of the enactment of this subparagraph and only
within such time period, any such public employee organization certified
or recognized to represent employees of an MTA-public employer
(described in subparagraph (ii) of paragraph (a) of this subdivision)
not subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Railway Labor Act but
which was subject to such jurisdiction during the sixty-day period set
forth in subparagraph (i) of this paragraph may elect to be covered by
the provisions of this section by filing in writing a notice of
participation with the chairman of the board and the chairman of the
metropolitan transportation authority.
(iii) Once such an election is made pursuant to subparagraph (i) or
(ii) of this paragraph, any such public employee organization shall
thereafter be subject to the provisions of this section unless such
organization and the chairman of the metropolitan transportation
authority file a joint agreement in writing with the chairman of the
board that provides for a rescission of the election made pursuant to
this paragraph.
(g) This subdivision shall not apply to a certified or recognized
public employee organization which represents any public employees
described in subdivision sixteen of section twelve hundred four of the
public authorities law and nothing contained within this section shall
be construed to divest the public employment relations board or any
court of competent jurisdiction of the full power or authority to
enforce any order made by the board or such court prior to the effective
date of this subdivision.
* NB Expires July 1, 2007
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