H.R. 1505 — Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act

This section declares it the policy of the United States to promote labor-management cooperation in state and local public safety agencies (i.e., law enforcement, fire, and emergency medical services) based on trust, mutual respect, open communication, and collective bargaining over pay, hours, and working conditions. It recognizes public safety officers as first responders under the National Incident Management System; emphasizes the national interest in such cooperation to prevent industrial strife, support commerce, and enhance security and morale; and respects state and local laws providing comparable or greater collective bargaining rights.

This section defines 13 terms for purposes of the Act, including (1) public safety officer (i.e., a law enforcement officer, firefighter, or emergency medical services personnel employed by a public safety agency, excluding permanent supervisory, management, or confidential employees, but including those temporarily transferred to supervisory or management positions); (2) employer, public safety agency, or public safety employer (i.e., a state or political subdivision employing public safety officers); (3) supervisory employee, management employee, and confidential employee (with fallback federal definitions if no applicable state law exists); (4) law enforcement officer (cross-referencing 34 U.S.C. 10284(6)); (5) firefighter (cross-referencing 29 U.S.C. 203(y)); (6) emergency medical services personnel (i.e., individuals providing out-of-hospital emergency medical care); and (7) other terms such as Authority (i.e., Federal Labor Relations Authority), labor organization, person, state, and substantially provides.

This section requires the Authority to determine, not later than 180 days after enactment, whether each state's law substantially provides public safety officers with specified rights and responsibilities comparable to or greater than the following: (1) the right to form and join a labor organization (excluding management, supervisory, and confidential employees) as the exclusive bargaining representative; (2) public safety employer recognition of, bargaining with, and commitment to written agreements with such organizations; (3) bargaining over hours, wages, and terms and conditions of employment; (4) binding interest arbitration to resolve bargaining impasses; and (5) enforcement of these rights and agreements through a state agency and/or court. In making the determination, the Authority must consider employer and labor organization input (giving maximum weight to their mutual agreements), limit review to these criteria, allow subsequent determinations within 30 days of a request showing material changes in state law, and permit judicial review in a U.S. Court of Appeals within 60 days of the determination. (Thus, compliant states are exempt from this Act's preemption of state law; noncompliant states—or specified categories of public safety officers in cases of partial noncompliance—are subject to the Act's regulations and procedures under section 5, beginning no earlier than two years after enactment or the end of the state's first regular legislative session following the determination.)

This section requires the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA)—not later than one year after enactment—to issue regulations establishing collective bargaining procedures for employers and public safety officers in states determined (pursuant to section 4(a)) not to substantially provide the rights and responsibilities described in section 4(b). The FLRA must (1) determine the appropriateness of bargaining units; (2) supervise or conduct representation elections; (3) resolve good-faith bargaining disputes; (4) adjudicate unfair labor practice complaints; (5) resolve exceptions to arbitrator awards; (6) protect employee rights to form, join, or refrain from labor organizations; and (7) take other actions necessary to administer the Act, including issuing subpoenas and conducting depositions. For enforcement, the FLRA may petition a U.S. court of appeals for compliance with its final orders, and any party may sue in U.S. district court unless the FLRA has already petitioned (with state enforcement per section 8(b)(4)).

This section prohibits employers, public safety officers, and labor organizations from engaging in a lockout, sickout, work slowdown, strike, or other organized job action that measurably disrupts emergency services to compel agreement on proposed contract terms. The prohibition does not preempt state or local laws on strikes by public safety officers.

This section preserves certifications, recognitions, election-held collective bargaining units, agreements, and memoranda of understanding for public employees that are in effect on the day before enactment.

This section specifies that the Act does not preempt or limit state or local laws or ordinances providing comparable or greater rights and responsibilities for public safety officers than those described in section 4(b) (i.e., generally collective bargaining rights). It further (1) permits states to enforce right-to-work laws prohibiting union security agreements, (2) allows certain state laws permitting employee self-representation in employment relations with public safety agencies, (3) authorizes states to exempt political subdivisions with populations under 5,000 or fewer than 25 full-time employees (excluding elected officials or board/commission appointees), and (4) preserves state or local laws omitting bargaining over pensions, retirement, or health benefits. This section additionally provides that states need not rescind local laws meeting or exceeding section 4(b) standards; limits Authority preemption of local laws providing equivalent bargaining rights (including those covering only some officer categories or requiring legislative approval of agreements); restricts Authority enforcement to unprotected officer categories under partial-coverage laws; and grants the Authority exclusive enforcement power over state employees absent a sovereign immunity waiver.