Sec. 1. 26 MRSA §965, sub-§2, ¶B, as amended by PL 1975, c. 564, §13, is further amended to read:

B. Mediation procedures shall must be followed whenever either party to a controversy requests such services prior to arbitration, or, in the case of disputes affecting public employers, public employees or their respective representatives as defined, whenever requested by either party prior to arbitration or at any time on motion of the Maine Labor Relations Board or its executive director. Requests for grievance mediation are handled in accordance with paragraph F.

Sec. 2. 26 MRSA §965, sub-§2, ¶F, as repealed and replaced by PL 1973, c. 617, §2, is repealed and the following enacted in its place:

F.__The services of the Panel of Mediators must be provided for grievance mediation only when the parties jointly agree to request grievance mediation services.__Notwithstanding this option, neither party is obligated under subsection 1 to bargain over the inclusion of grievance mediation procedures in a collective bargaining agreement.__The services of the Panel of Mediators are always available as a technique for impasse resolution in contract negotiations and may be invoked as described in paragraph B.

SUMMARY

This bill authorizes the Panel of Mediators to attempt to resolve disputes concerning the meaning of collective bargaining agreements through grievance mediation when the public employer and the bargaining agent agree to use that process. The bill also provides that collective bargaining proposals to include grievance mediation as a required step in the grievance resolution article of collective bargaining agreements would be a permissive, rather than a mandatory, subject of bargaining. This bill applies to all public employers.