Prohibition on Paid Union Activity (Release Time) by Public Employees Ordinance

Policy Status

  • Type: Model Policy
  • Status: Final
  • Date Finalized: September 3, 2019

Task Forces

  • American City County Exchange

    • Tags

  • AM19

    • Summary

    This ordinance prohibits “release time”—the practice of paying a public employee a public salary for time spent in union recruiting and representation activities. In some cases, public employees have become full-time union activists, drawing a full-time public salary and enjoying publicly paid benefits such as health insurance and pension earnings while doing so. While public employees should not be prohibited from freely associating outside of their employment duties, including hiring individuals to help represent their interests, this should occur at public employee, not taxpayer, expense.
    Draft

    Prohibition on Paid Union Activity (Release Time) by Public Employees Ordinance

    Prohibition on Paid Union Activity (Release Time) by Public Employees Ordinance

    Section 1. {Ordinance Definitions} The following definitions apply in this ordinance:

    (A) “Employment bargain” means any formal or informal employment contract, agreement or understanding regarding the wages, benefits or terms and conditions of employment of any public employee.

    (B) “Public employee” means any individual who is employed by a public employer.

    (C) “Union” means any association or organization, incorporated or unincorporated, that primarily exists to represent the interests of member employees in wages, benefits and terms and conditions of employment.

    (D) “Union activities” means activities that are performed by a union, union members or representatives that relate to advocating the interests of member employees in wages, benefits, terms and conditions of employment or the enforcement, fulfillment or advancement of the union’s organizational purposes, obligations, external relations or internal policies and procedures.

    Section 2. {Prohibition Against Compensation for Public Employee Union Activities}

    (A) [Insert Jurisdiction] shall not enter into any employment bargain with any public employee or union to compensate any public employee or third party for union activities. Any employment bargain that includes compensation to public employees or third parties for union activities is declared to be against the public policy of [Insert Jurisdiction] and is void.

    (B) This section does not prohibit a public employee from receiving compensated leave time for any personal purpose, provided that such compensated leave time is not knowingly taken or given to compensate for union activities.

    (C) This section does not apply to any existing non-executory contracts in effect before the effective date of this section but an existing contract shall not be renewed if the contract has any terms that conflict with this section.

    (D) The [Insert Jurisdiction] shall enforce this section.  Any resident of the [Insert jurisdiction] in which a violation of this section occurs has standing in any court of record to bring a special action against [Insert jurisdiction] to remedy any violation of any provision of this section.

    Section 3. {Severability clause}

    Section 4. {Repealer clause}

    Section 5. {Effective date}

    Approved By the ALEC Board of Directors: September 3, 2019