AB 441

Under the Municipal Employment Relations Act, in local government

employment other than law enforcement and fire fighting, if a dispute relating to the

terms of a proposed collective bargaining agreement has not been settled after a

reasonable period of negotiation and after mediation by the Wisconsin Employment

Relations Commission (WERC), either party, or the parties jointly, may petition

WERC to initiate compulsory, final, and binding arbitration with respect to any

dispute relating to wages, hours, and conditions of employment. An arbitrator's

decision is then incorporated into the collective bargaining agreement. In reaching

a decision, the arbitrator must give weight to factors. Unless the decision involves

a collective bargaining unit consisting of school district employees, the arbitrator

must give the greatest weight to any state law or directive that places expenditure

or revenue limitations on an employer and must give greater weight to economic

conditions in the jurisdiction of the employer than to other factors. For decisions

involving a collective bargaining unit consisting of any municipal employees the

arbitrator has to give weight to various factors including the authority of the

municipal employer; the interests and welfare of the public and the ability of the unit

of government to meet the costs of the proposed agreement; comparison of wages,

hours, and conditions of employment with those of other employees; and the cost of

living. This bill eliminates this distinction between school district employees and

other municipal employees, so that, for a decision involving a collective bargaining

unit consisting of school district employees as well as for a collective bargaining unit

consisting of other municipal employees, the arbitrator must give the greatest

weight to the factors given the greatest weight under current law to all municipal

employees except school district employees and must give greater weight to the

factors given greater weight under current law to all municipal employees except

school district employees.