§ 11-32-21 — Employee Protective Provisions

(a) The rights, benefits, and other employee protective conditions and remedies of Section 13(c) of the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964, as amended, 49 U.S.C. 1609(c), as determined by the Secretary of Labor, shall apply to the operation by the authority of any public transportation service and to any contract or other arrangement for the operation of such service. If the authority acquires an existing transit system, the authority shall assume and observe all existing labor contracts and pension obligations. All employees of the system except executive and administrative officers shall be transferred to and appointed as employees of the authority, subject to all rights and benefits of this section. These employees shall be given seniority credit and sick leave, vacation, insurance, and pension credits in accordance with the records or labor agreements from the acquired transit system. The authority shall assume the obligations of any transit system acquired by it with regard to wages, salaries, hours, working conditions, sick leave, health and welfare, and pension or retirement provisions for employees. The authority and the employees, through their representatives for collective bargaining purposes, shall take whatever action may be necessary to have pension trust funds, presently under the joint control of the acquired transit system and the participating employees through their representatives, transferred to a trust fund to be established, maintained, and administered jointly by the authority and the participating employees through their representatives. An employee of any acquired transit system who is transferred to a position with the authority may not, by reason of the transfer, be placed in any worse position with respect to worker’s compensation, unemployment compensation, pension, seniority, wages, sick leave, vacation, health and welfare insurance, or any other benefits than he or she enjoyed as an employee of the acquired transportation system.
(b) Prior to commencing to operate any public transportation service, or entering into any contractual or other arrangement for any operation of the service, the authority shall take the action as may be necessary to extend to the employees of the transit system, in accordance with seniority, the first opportunity for reasonable comparable employment in any new jobs in respect to the operations for which they can qualify after a reasonable training period. The wages, hours, and working conditions for employees assigned to the new operations shall be a proper subject of negotiation with the labor organizations representing the employees of the transit system. Whenever any labor dispute arises in the operation of any public transportation service operated by or for the authority, and collective bargaining does not result in an agreement, the authority shall offer to submit the dispute to final and binding arbitration by a board composed of three persons, one appointed by the authority, one appointed by the representative of the employees, and a third member, who shall serve as chair, to be selected from a current listing of the membership of the National Academy of Arbitrators by agreement of the parties, or in the absence of such agreement, by obtaining a listing of seven of the members of the National Academy from the American Arbitration Association and by alternately striking a name from the list so supplied until only one name remains. The representative of the employees and the authority shall determine by lot who shall first strike from the list. The decision of a majority of the arbitration board shall be final and binding upon the parties thereto. The expenses of arbitration shall be borne equally by the parties. Each party shall bear his or her own cost.
(c) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the authority shall make deductions from wages and salaries of its employees upon receipt of authorization therefor for the payment of union dues, fees, or assessments, for the payment of contributions pursuant to any health and welfare plan or pension plan, or for any other purpose for which deductions may be authorized by employees of any private employer, where the deductions are pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement entered into or assumed by the authority.

Legislative History

(Act 2013-380, p. 1389, §21.)