Minnesota Legislature
SF 4597
as introduced - 93rd Legislature (2023 - 2024) Posted on 04/09/2024 09:47am
Current Version - as introduced
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A bill for an act
relating to labor; amending the definition of public employee; modifying bargaining
units for university of Minnesota employees; amending Minnesota Statutes 2022,
section 179A.11, subdivisions 1, 2, by adding a subdivision; Minnesota Statutes
2023 Supplement, section 179A.03, subdivision 14.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:
Section 1.
Minnesota Statutes 2023 Supplement, section 179A.03, subdivision 14, is
amended to read:
Subd. 14.
Public employee or employee.
(a) "Public employee" or "employee" means
any person appointed or employed by a public employer except:
(1) elected public officials;
(2) election officers;
(3) commissioned or enlisted personnel of the Minnesota National Guard;
(4) emergency employees who are employed for emergency work caused by natural
disaster;
(5) part-time employees whose service does not exceed the lesser of 14 hours per week
or 35 percent of the normal work week in the employee's appropriate unit;
(6) employees whose positions are basically temporary or seasonal in character and: (i)
are not for more than 67 working days in any calendar year; new text begin or new text end (ii) are not working for a
Minnesota school district or charter school; deleted text begin or (iii) are not for more than 100 working days
in any calendar year and the employees are under the age of 22, are full-time students
enrolled in a nonprofit or public educational institution prior to being hired by the employer,
and have indicated, either in an application for employment or by being enrolled at an
educational institution for the next academic year or term, an intention to continue as students
during or after their temporary employment;
deleted text end
(7) employees providing services for not more than two consecutive quarters to the
Board of Trustees of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities under the terms of a
professional or technical services contract as defined in section 16C.08, subdivision 1;
(8) employees of charitable hospitals as defined by section 179.35, subdivision 3, except
that employees of charitable hospitals as defined by section 179.35, subdivision 3, are public
employees for purposes of sections 179A.051, 179A.052, and 179A.13;
deleted text begin
(9) full-time undergraduate students employed by the school which they attend under a
work-study program or in connection with the receipt of financial aid, irrespective of number
of hours of service per week;
deleted text end
deleted text begin (10)deleted text end new text begin (9)new text end an individual who is employed for less than 300 hours in a fiscal year as an
instructor in an adult vocational education program;
deleted text begin (11)deleted text end new text begin (10)new text end with respect to court employees:
(i) personal secretaries to judges;
(ii) law clerks;
(iii) managerial employees;
(iv) confidential employees; and
(v) supervisory employees; or
deleted text begin (12)deleted text end new text begin (11)new text end with respect to employees of Hennepin Healthcare System, Inc., managerial,
supervisory, and confidential employees.
(b) The following individuals are public employees regardless of the exclusions of
paragraph (a), clauses (5) to (7):
(1) an employee hired by a school district or the Board of Trustees of the Minnesota
State Colleges and Universities except at the university established in the Twin Cities
metropolitan area under section 136F.10 or for community services or community education
instruction offered on a noncredit basis: (i) to replace an absent teacher or faculty member
who is a public employee, where the replacement employee is employed more than 30
working days as a replacement for that teacher or faculty member; or (ii) to take a teaching
position created due to increased enrollment, curriculum expansion, courses which are a
part of the curriculum whether offered annually or not, or other appropriate reasons;
(2) an employee hired for a position under paragraph (a), clause (6), item (i), if that same
position has already been filled under paragraph (a), clause (6), item (i), in the same calendar
year and the cumulative number of days worked in that same position by all employees
exceeds 67 calendar days in that year. For the purpose of this paragraph, "same position"
includes a substantially equivalent position if it is not the same position solely due to a
change in the classification or title of the position;
(3) an early childhood family education teacher employed by a school district; deleted text begin and
deleted text end
(4) an individual hired by the Board of Trustees of the Minnesota State Colleges and
Universitiesnew text begin or the University of Minnesotanew text end as the instructor of record to teach (i) one class
for more than three credits in a fiscal year, or (ii) two or more credit-bearing classes in a
fiscal yeardeleted text begin .deleted text end new text begin ; and
new text end
new text begin
(5) an individual who: (i) is paid by the Board of Regents of the University of Minnesota
for work performed at the direction of the university or any of its employees or contractors;
and (ii) is enrolled in three or more university credit-bearing classes or one semester as a
full-time student or post-doctoral fellow during the fiscal year in which the work is
performed. For purposes of this section, work paid by the university includes but is not
limited to work that is required as a condition of receiving a stipend or tuition benefit,
whether or not the individual also receives educational benefit from performing that work.
Individuals who perform supervisory functions in regard to any of the aforementioned
workers are not considered supervisory employees for the purpose of section 179A.06,
subdivision 2.
new text end
Sec. 2.
Minnesota Statutes 2022, section 179A.11, subdivision 1, is amended to read:
Subdivision 1.
Units.
new text begin (a) new text end The following are deleted text begin thedeleted text end appropriate units of University of
Minnesota employees. All units shall exclude managerial and confidential employees.
deleted text begin Supervisory employees shall only be assigned to unit 13. No additional units of University
of Minnesota employees shall be recognized for the purpose of meeting and negotiating.
deleted text end
(1) The Law Enforcement Unit deleted text begin consists ofdeleted text end new text begin includesnew text end the positions of all employees with
the power of arrest.
(2) The Craft and Trades Unit deleted text begin consists ofdeleted text end new text begin includesnew text end the positions of all employees whose
work requires specialized manual skills and knowledge acquired through formal training
or apprenticeship or equivalent on-the-job training or experience.
(3) The Service, Maintenance, and Labor Unit deleted text begin consists ofdeleted text end new text begin includesnew text end the positions of all
employees whose work is typically that of maintenance, service, or labor and which does
not require extensive previous training or experience, except as provided in unit 4.
(4) The Health Care Nonprofessional and Service Unit deleted text begin consists ofdeleted text end new text begin includesnew text end the positions
of all nonprofessional employees of the University of Minnesota hospitals, dental school,
and health service whose work is unique to those settings, excluding labor and maintenance
employees as defined in unit 3.
(5) The Nursing Professional Unit deleted text begin consists ofdeleted text end new text begin includesnew text end all positions which are required
to be filled by registered nurses.
(6) The Clerical and Office Unit deleted text begin consists ofdeleted text end new text begin includesnew text end the positions of all employees
whose work is typically clerical or secretarial, including nontechnical data recording and
retrieval and general office work, except as provided in unit 4.
(7) The Technical Unit deleted text begin consists ofdeleted text end new text begin includesnew text end the positions of all employees whose work
is not typically manual and which requires specialized knowledge or skills acquired through
two-year academic programs or equivalent experience or on-the-job training, except as
provided in unit 4.
deleted text begin
(8) The Twin Cities Instructional Unit consists of the positions of all instructional
employees with the rank of professor, associate professor, assistant professor, including
research associate or instructor, including research fellow, located on the Twin Cities
campuses.
deleted text end
deleted text begin (9)deleted text end new text begin (8)new text end The Outstate Instructional Unit deleted text begin consists ofdeleted text end new text begin includesnew text end the positions of all instructional
employees with the rank of professor, associate professor, assistant professor, including
research associate or instructor, including research fellow, located at the Duluth campus,
provided that the positions of instructional employees of the same ranks at the Morris,
Crookston, or deleted text begin Wasecadeleted text end new text begin Rochesternew text end campuses shall be included within this unit if a majority
of the eligible employees voting at a campus so vote during an election conducted by the
commissioner, provided that the election new text begin or majority verification procedure new text end shall not be
held until the Duluth campus has voted in favor of representation. The election shall be held
new text begin or majority verification procedure shall take place new text end when an employee organization or group
of employees petitions the commissioner stating that a majority of the eligible employees
at one of these campuses wishes to join the unit and this petition is supported by a showing
of at least 30 percent support from eligible employees at that campus and is filed between
September 1 and November 1.
deleted text begin
Should both units 8 and 9 elect exclusive bargaining representatives, those representatives
may by mutual agreement jointly negotiate a contract with the regents, or may negotiate
separate contracts with the regents. If the exclusive bargaining representatives jointly
negotiate a contract with the regents, the contract shall be ratified by each unit.
deleted text end
new text begin
For the
purposes of this section, "instructional employees" shall include all individuals who spend
35 percent or more of their work time creating, delivering, and assessing the mastery of
credit-bearing coursework.
new text end
(10) The Graduate Assistant Unit deleted text begin consists ofdeleted text end new text begin includesnew text end the positions of all graduate
assistants who are enrolled in the graduate school and who hold the rank of research assistant,
teaching assistant, teaching associate I or II, project assistant, new text begin graduate school fellow,
graduate school trainee, professional school fellow, professional school trainee, new text end or
administrative fellow I or II.new text begin None of the listed ranks refer to ranks under the job category
of professionals-in-training.
new text end
deleted text begin
(11) The Academic Professional and Administrative Staff Unit consists of all academic
professional and administrative staff positions that are not defined as included in an
instructional unit, the supervisory unit, the clerical unit, or the technical unit.
deleted text end
deleted text begin
(12) The Noninstructional Professional Unit consists of the positions of all employees
meeting the requirements of section 179A.03, subdivision 13, clause (1) or (2), which are
not defined as included within an instructional unit, the Academic Professional and
Administrative Staff Unit, or the supervisory unit.
deleted text end
deleted text begin
(13) The Supervisory Employees Unit consists of the positions of all supervisory
employees.
deleted text end
new text begin
(b) All University of Minnesota employees whose positions are not within an enumerated
bargaining unit in this subdivision may organize in the manner set forth in section 179A.09,
and the commissioner must place special weight on the desires of the petitioning employee
representatives.
new text end
Sec. 3.
Minnesota Statutes 2022, section 179A.11, subdivision 2, is amended to read:
Subd. 2.
University of Minnesota employee severance.
new text begin (a) new text end Each of the following
groups of University of Minnesota employees has the right, as specified in this subdivision,
to separate from the instructional and supervisory units: (1) health sciences instructional
employees at all campuses with the rank of professor, associate professor, assistant professor,
including research associate, or instructor, including research fellow, (2) instructional
employees of the law school with the rank of professor, associate professor, assistant
professor, including research associate, or instructor, including research fellow, (3)
instructional supervisors, (4) noninstructional professional supervisors, and (5) academic
professional and administrative staff supervisors.
deleted text begin Thisdeleted text end new text begin (b) Thenew text end right new text begin to separate new text end may be exercisednew text begin :
new text end
new text begin (1)new text end by petition between September 1 and November 1. If a group separates from its unit,
it has no right to meet and negotiate, but retains the right to meet and confer with the
appropriate officials on any matter of concern to the group. The right to separate must be
exercised as follows: An employee organization or group of employees claiming that a
majority of any one of these groups of employees on a statewide basis wish to separate from
their unit may petition the commissioner for an election during the petitioning period. If the
petition is supported by a showing of at least 30 percent support from the employees, the
commissioner deleted text begin shalldeleted text end new text begin maynew text end hold an election on the separation issuenew text begin or the petitioning group
may proceed under the process set forth in section 179A.12new text end . This election must be conducted
within 30 days of the close of the petition period. If a majority of votes cast endorse severance
from their unit, the commissioner shall certify that resultdeleted text begin .deleted text end new text begin ; or
new text end
new text begin
(2) by the group's exclusion from a proposed unit in a representation petition.
new text end
new text begin (c) new text end Where not inconsistent with other provisions of this section, the election is governed
by section 179A.12. If a group of employees severs, it may rejoin that unit by following the
procedures for severance during the periods for severance.
Sec. 4.
Minnesota Statutes 2022, section 179A.11, is amended by adding a subdivision to
read:
new text begin Subd. 3. new text end
new text begin Joint bargaining. new text end
new text begin
Units organized under this section that have elected exclusive
bargaining representatives may by mutual agreement jointly negotiate a contract with the
regents, or may negotiate separate contracts with the regents. If the exclusive bargaining
representatives jointly negotiate a contract with the regents, the contract must be ratified
by each unit.
new text end