§ 33-104. Employee rights.

(a) Employees have the right to:

(1) Form, join, support, contribute to, or participate in, or to refrain from forming, joining, supporting, contributing to, or participating in, any employee organization or its lawful activities; and

(2) Be represented fairly by their certified representative, if any.

(b) The employer has the duty to extend to the certified representative the exclusive right to represent the employees for the purposes of collective bargaining, including the orderly processing and settlement of grievances as agreed by the parties in accordance with this article.

(c) Except as provided in subsections (e) and (f), a certified representative serves as the exclusive bargaining agent for all employees in the unit for which it is certified and has the duty to represent fairly and without discrimination all employees in the unit without regard to whether the employees are members of the employee organization, pay dues or other contributions to it, or participate in its affairs.

(d) The right of a certified representative to receive voluntary dues or service fee deductions must be determined through negotiations, unless the authority to negotiate these provisions has been suspended under this article. A collective bargaining agreement may not include a provision requiring membership in, participation in the affairs of, or contributions to an employee organization.

(e) A certified representative may require an employee who does not pay membership dues or equivalent fees to pay:

(1) the reasonable costs and fees, including expenses for staff time and materials, arbitrator fees, and related attorney’s fees, for filing a grievance or arbitrating a matter that arises under a collective bargaining agreement brought by the certified representative at the request of the employee; and

(2) any anticipated proportional costs and fees before a grievance is filed or arbitration is pursued.

(f) If an employee fails to pay the reasonable costs to file a grievance or pursue arbitration imposed under subsection (e), the certified representative may refuse to file the grievance or pursue arbitration on behalf of the employee. A dispute concerning the reasonableness of the fees imposed by the certified representative under subsection (e) may be submitted to the labor relations administrator as a prohibited practice under Section 33-109. (1986 L.M.C., ch. 70, § 3; 2020 L.M.C., ch. 3, §1.)