LD 1610
pg. 2
Page 1 of 2 An Act to Clarify the Legal Status of Employees of the Governor Baxter School f... LD 1610 Title Page
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LR 2201
Item 1

 
5.__Personnel transferred.__Classified and unclassified
employees assigned to the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf
must be transferred from state employment to the Governor Baxter
School for the Deaf in its capacity as an independent agency.

 
Fringe benefits from state employment of the transferred
personnel, including vacation and sick leave, health and life
insurance and retirement, remain with the transferred personnel.
All employees of the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf,
whenever hired, are eligible to participate in the state employee
health plan and the regular state employee plan of the Maine
State Retirement System.

 
Collective bargaining agreements between the State and bargaining
units comparable to those at the Governor Baxter School for the
Deaf do not cover the members of the bargaining units at that
school.__The rights and benefits of employees at the Governor
Baxter School for the Deaf are determined by statute and by the
status quo existing at the school. The rights and benefits under
statutes, rules and collective bargaining agreements in effect on
the effective date of this Act or successor collective bargaining
agreements are evidence of the status quo that must be maintained
for all personnel at Governor Baxter School for the Deaf until
changed in accordance with applicable labor law principles. The
rights and benefits of personnel hired after August 11, 2000,
whose positions are included within a bargaining unit, are the
same as those of the transferred employees, once the newly hired
personnel are eligible employees under applicable law or the
applicable collective bargaining agreement, except that these
employees do not have seniority rights applicable to executive
branch bargaining units.

 
All personnel transferred from state employment to the Governor
Baxter School for the Deaf as an independent agency retain all
applicable seniority rights and privileges and all other rights
and privileges with regard to employment in state service for a
period of 2 years from the effective date of this Act.__During
this 2-year period, the recall provisions of these applicable
laws, rules and collective bargaining agreements continue to
apply for all transferred personnel with layoff status to the
filling of any vacancy in the Governor Baxter School for the
Deaf.__Transferred personnel who refuse recall to the Governor
Baxter School for the Deaf retain full recall rights to all other
agencies of State Government.

 
The Department of Administrative and Financial Services shall
assist the School Board of the Governor Baxter School for the
Deaf with the orderly implementation of the provisions of this
subsection.

 
Sec. 4. Retroactivity. This Act is retroactive to August 11, 2000.

 
Emergency clause. In view of the emergency cited in the preamble,
this Act takes effect when approved.

 
SUMMARY

 
This bill clarifies several of the transition provisions
applicable to employees of the Governor Baxter School for the
Deaf, which became an independent state agency pursuant to Public
Law 1999, chapter 775. The bill provides that employees who were
hired after the effective date of that law have the same rights
and benefits as employees hired before, except for seniority
rights in executive branch agencies. The bill provides that
employees hired before and after the change in the school's
status are eligible to participate in the state employee health
plan and the regular state employee plan of the Maine State
Retirement System.

 
It provides that collective bargaining agreements between the
State and bargaining agents for bargaining units in state
employment do not cover comparable bargaining units at the
Governor Baxter School for the Deaf. However, the agreements
between the State and the bargaining agents in effect at the time
of the school's status change and successor agreements are
evidence of the status quo at the school, which must be
maintained until changed in accordance with applicable labor law
principles.

 
This bill also provides that Governor Baxter School for the
Deaf employees are eligible to participate in the state employee
health plan and the state employee plan of the Maine State
Retirement System unless a binding agreement signed by both the
employee or employee representative and the school board of the
Governor Baxter School for the Deaf otherwise provides. This
prevents the school board from unilaterally changing the health
or retirement benefit provided to the Governor Baxter School for
the Deaf employees.


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