Section 124.610 - Employee rights; collective bargaining; labor agreements.

EMERGENCY SERVICES TO MUNICIPALITIES (EXCERPT)
Act 57 of 1988

124.610 Employee rights; collective bargaining; labor agreements.

Sec. 10.

(1) Except as provided in subsection (2), employees of a municipal emergency service whose duties are transferred to an authority formed under this act shall be given comparable positions of employment with the emergency service established by the authority, and shall maintain their seniority status and all benefit rights of the position held in the municipal emergency response service before the transfer.

(2) If sufficient positions of comparable employment are not available for all employees at the time of transfer, a less senior employee who is not transferred to a comparable position shall be placed on layoff status with the authority's emergency service and shall be recalled to any position for which he or she may qualify, which may occur after a reasonable training period, or as soon as vacancies occur, or both. The layoff status, or any layoff list, shall not be mandatorily honored beyond 3 years from the date of layoff. The authority shall determine the number of positions necessary to perform any emergency service, and shall not be required to create or maintain unnecessary positions.

(3) An authority may bargain collectively and enter into agreements with labor organizations pursuant to Act No. 336 of the Public Acts of 1947, being sections 423.201 to 423.216 of the Michigan Compiled Laws. When the duties of a municipal emergency service are transferred to an authority, the authority immediately shall assume and be bound by any existing labor agreements applicable to that municipal service for the remainder of the term of the labor agreement. Subject to the provision of subsection (2), the members and beneficiaries of any pension or retirement system or other benefits established by a municipal emergency service which is transferred to an authority shall have the same rights, privileges, benefits, obligations, and status with respect to the comparable systems established by the authority. A representative of the employees or any group of employees in a municipal emergency service who represent or are entitled to represent the employees or a group of employees of the municipal service, pursuant to Act No. 336 of the Public Acts of 1947, shall continue to represent the employee or group of employees after the employees are transferred to an authority's emergency service. This subsection does not limit the rights of employees, pursuant to applicable law, to assert that a bargaining representative protected by this subsection is no longer their representative.

(4) An employee who left the employ of the municipal emergency response service to enter the military service of the United States shall have the same employment rights as to the emergency service as they would have had under the municipal emergency response service pursuant to Act No. 263 of the Public Acts of 1951, being sections 35.351 to 35.356 of the Michigan Compiled Laws.


History: 1988, Act 57, Eff. Apr. 1, 1988