Ohio Senate Bill 5: Select Legal Issues

1. Ohio Senate Bill 5: Select Legal Issues Louis Benedict, MBA, J.D., Ph.D.

2. Definition of Faculty As Supervisor • With respect to faculty members of a state institution of higher education, heads of departments or divisions are supervisors; however, no faculty member or group of faculty members is a supervisor solely because the faculty member or group of faculty members participate in decisions with respect to courses, curriculum, personnel, or other matters of academic policy; • With respect to faculty members of a state institution of higher education, heads of departments or divisions are supervisors; in addition, any faculty member or group of faculty members that participate in decisions with respect to courses, curriculum, personnel, or other matters of academic or institutional policy are supervisors or management level employees; Current Version Senate Bill 5

3. Definition of Manager • (L) “Management level employee” means an individual who formulates policy on behalf of the public employer, who responsibly directs the implementation of policy, or who may reasonably be required on behalf of the public employer to assist in the preparation for the conduct of collective negotiations, administer collectively negotiated agreements, or have a major role in personnel administration. Assistant superintendents, principals, and assistant principals whose employment is governed by section 3319.02 of the Revised Code are management level employees. With respect to members of a faculty of a state institution of higher education, no person is a management level employee because of the person’s involvement in the formulation or implementation of academic or institution policy. • (K)"Management level employee" means an … management level employees. With respect to members of a faculty of a state institution of higher education, any faculty who, individually or through a faculty senate or like organization, participate in the governance of the institution, are involved in personnel decisions, selection or review of administrators, planning and use of physical resources, budget preparation, and determination of educational policies related to admissions, curriculum, subject matter, and methods of instruction and research are management level employees. Current Version Senate Bill 5

4. YeshivaFaculty as Managers • “It is plain, for example, that professors may not be excluded merely because they determine the content of their own courses, evaluate their own students, and supervise their own research. There thus may be institutions of higher learning unlike Yeshiva where the faculty are entirely or predominantly nonmanagerial. There also may be faculty members at Yeshiva and like universities who properly could be included in a bargaining unit.”

5. B) The following subjects are not appropriate subjects for collective bargaining: (1) The conduct and grading of civil service examinations, the rating of candidates, the establishment of eligible lists from the examinations, and the original appointments from the eligible lists are not appropriate subjects for collective bargaining; (2) Health care benefits, except that, subject to division (E) of this section, the amount of the cost of those benefits for which a public employer and the public employees of the public employer pays is an appropriate subject of collective bargaining;

6. Proposed Health Care Benefit Limits • (E) The provision of health care benefits for which the employer is required to pay more than eighty-five per cent of the cost is not an appropriate subject for collective bargaining. No public employer shall agree to a provision that requires the public employer to pay more than eighty-five per cent of the cost paid for health care benefits.

7. B) The following subjects are not appropriate subjects for collective bargaining: (3) The payment of a contribution by a public employer to the public employees retirement system, the Ohio police and fire pension fund, the state teachers retirement system, the state highway patrol retirement system, or the school employees retirement system on behalf of an employee, contributor, or teacher, as applicable, that the employee, contributor, or teacher otherwise is required to pay; (4) The privatization of a public employer's services or contracting out of the public employer's work; (5) The number of employees required to be on duty or employed in any department, division, or facility of a public employer.

8. Sec. 4117.15 Strike Limitations • (A) No public employee or employee organization shall engage in a strike, and no public employee or employee organization shall cause, instigate, encourage, or condone a strike. Whenever a strike occurs, the public employer may seek an injunction against the strike in the court of common pleas of the county in which the strike is located.

9. Sec. 4117.15 Strike Limitations • (B) Any person who violates division (A) of this section may be subject to removal or other disciplinary action provided by law for misconduct. The public employer, the state employment relations board, or any court of competent jurisdiction may not waive the penalties or fines provided in this section as part of the settlement of an illegal strike.

10. Sec. 4117.15 Strike Limitations • (C) An employee who is absent from work without permission or who abstains wholly or in part from the full performance of the employee's duties in the employee's normal manner without permission, on the date when a strike occurs, shall be presumed to have engaged in the strike on that date.

11. Sec. 4117.27Penalties for Striking • B) Except as provided in division (C) of this section, the penalty for engaging in a strike in violation of an order issued pursuant to division (A) of this section is a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, or any other sanction in accordance with division (A) of section 2705.05 of the Revised Code, or both, in the discretion of the court.