465 R.I. Code R. 465-RICR-10-00-1.2

Current through November 7, 2024

Section 465-RICR-10-00-1.2 - Definitions

A. As used in these Regulations and decisions of the Board, the following terms shall be defined as hereinafter set forth:

1. "Act" means Rhode Island Labor Relations Act, R.I. Gen. Laws § 28-7-1 et seq.

2. "Accretion" means the process by which positions are added to an existing bargaining unit.

3. "Administrative dismissal" means pursuant to R.I. Gen. Laws § 28-7-9(d), the written discharge of any Unfair Labor Practice Charge after investigation and designated informal hearing process.

4. "Administrative officials" means the highest members of an Employer's executive department; the top level of the Employer's hierarchy, the officials or political appointees of the local government; an officer or political appointee of the executive department of the government.

5. "Ballot harvesting" means the collection of two (2) or more completed mail ballots by one (1) or more person(s) or entity for the purpose of submitting said mail ballots to the Board for counting in a Board conducted mail ballot election.

6. "Board" means the Rhode Island State Labor Relations Board.

7. "Business day" means Monday through Friday, excluding those holidays as enumerated in R.I. Gen. Laws § 25-1-1.

8. "Cards of interest" means a showing of interest for authorization of representation through cards of interest and/or a Petition listing the names, titles of positions, and a showing of an original signature, pursuant to R.I. Gen. Laws § 28-7-9(b)(1).

9. "Casual employee" means those persons hired for an occasional period to perform special jobs or functions.

10. "Certification of Representatives" means the Board's official approval of a bargaining unit, issued upon petition.

11. "Community of interest" means the critical consideration in determining the scope of bargaining units. In determining whether a proposed bargaining unit shares a community of interest, the Board may consider the following factors, among others:

a. The similarity in scale and manner of determining earnings;

b. Similarity of employment benefits, hours of work, and other terms and conditions of employment;

c. Similarity in the kind of work performed;

d. Similarity in the qualifications, skills, and training of the employees;

e. Frequency of contact or interchange among employees;

f. Geographic proximity;

g. Continuity or integration of production processes;

h. Common supervision and determination of labor relations policies;

i. Relationship to the administrative organization of the Employer;

j. The history of collective bargaining;

k. The desires of the affected employees; and

l. The extent of Union organization within the Employer's ranks.

12. "Company Union" means any committee, employee representation plan, or association of employees, which exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with Employers concerning grievances, or terms and conditions of employment, which the Employer has initiated or created, or whose initiation or creation he or she has suggested, participated in, or in the formulation of whose governing rules or policies, or the conducting of whose management, operations, or elections the Employer participates in or supervises, or which the Employer maintains, finances, controls, dominates or assists in maintaining or financing, whether by compensating anyone for services performed in its behalf or by donating free services, equipment, materials, office or meeting space or anything else of value, or by any other means.

13. "Confidential employee" means those employees who assist and act in a confidential capacity to persons who formulate, determine, and effectuate management policies in the field of labor relations, or those employees who, in the course of their duties, regularly have access to confidential information concerning anticipated changes, which may result from collective bargaining negotiations.

14. "Confidential information" means information excluded from public access by Federal or State law, or administrative rule, court rule, court or administrative order, or case law.

15. "Consent Election" means an election in which both the employees and Employer agree upon the scope of the proposed bargaining unit; subject to the final approval of the Board and to statutory exclusions of employees, as determined by the Board.

16. "Decertification Signature Cards" means a showing of interest for authorization to displace or decertify a certified or recognized labor organization.

17. "Designation of Bargaining Agent and Waiver of Right to Vote" means a showing of interest for authorization of representation through cards of interest, whereby the parties are deemed to have waived their statutory right to an informal conference and other consent election processes.

18. "Elected official" means those employees who have come to be employed by any city, town, or subdivision of the State, through the electoral process, by its citizens.

19. "Electronic Filing (e-file)" means the electronic transmission of a document to the Electronic Document Management System together with the production and transmission of a notice of electronic filing.

20. "Electronic record" means a record, file, or document created, generated, sent, communicated, received, or stored by electronic means.

21. "Employee" means includes, but is not restricted to, any individual employed by a labor organization; any individual whose employment has ceased as a consequence of, or in connection with, any current labor dispute, or because of any unfair labor practice, and who has not obtained any other regular and substantially equivalent employment; and shall not be limited to the employees of a particular Employer, unless the chapter explicitly states otherwise; but shall not include any individual employed by his or her parent or spouse, or in the domestic service of any person in his or her home, or any individuals employed only for the duration of a labor dispute, or any individuals employed as farm laborers.

22. "Employer" means any person acting on behalf of, or in the interest of the Employer, directly or indirectly, with or without his or her knowledge, but a labor organization, or any officer or agent thereof, shall only be considered an Employer with respect to individuals employed by the organization.

23. "Excelsior List" means the listing of the eligible voters by name, address, title, department or division of work.

24. "Formal hearing" means a formal process before the Board members of the Rhode Island State Labor Relations Board that is conducted for the purpose of identifying and hearing issues of fact or law through testimony under oath, by means of an in-person hearing or remote video conferencing, as in accordance with § 1.10 of this Part.

25. "Incumbent" means the current bargaining unit that has been previously certified by the Board through an election process and retains the current Certification of Representatives.

26. "Informal hearing" means a preliminary process that is implemented for the purpose of identifying and narrowing issues of fact or law, by means of either a written submission, remote video conferencing, or an in-person hearing, before the Administrator and/or its Agent of the Board, stating the parties' position(s) with respect to a newly filed matter, in accordance with § 1.9 of this Part.

27. "Initial Filings - Petitions" means the filing of any Unfair Labor Practice Charge, Petition for Investigation of Controversies as to Representation, Petition for Decertification of a Certified Bargaining Representative, Petition for Unit Clarification and/or Accretion/Exclusion, or a Petition for Affiliation/Merger, before the Rhode Island State Labor Relations Board.

28. "Intervener" means a party who voluntarily interposes in a proceeding with the approval of the Board or its Administrator.

29. "Labor dispute" means includes, but is not restricted to, any controversy between Employers and employees or their representatives, as defined herein, concerning terms, tenure, or conditions of employment, or concerning the association or representation of persons in negotiating, fixing, maintaining, changing, or seeking to represent, negotiate, fix, maintain, or change terms and conditions of employment, or concerning the violation of any of the rights granted or affirmed by the Act, regardless of whether the disputants stand in the proximate relation of Employer and employee.

30. "Labor organization" means any organization, which exists and is constituted for the purpose, in whole or in part, of collective bargaining, or of dealing with Employers concerning grievances, terms or conditions of employment, or of other mutual aid and protection, and which is not a company Union, as defined in § 1.2(A)(12) of this Part.

31. "Managerial employee" means those employees who formulate and effectuate management policies by expressing and making operative the decisions of their Employers. Managerial employees must exercise discretion within, or even independently of, established Employer policy and must be aligned with management. An employee may be excluded from a bargaining unit as managerial only if he or she represents management's interests by taking or recommending discretionary actions that effectively control or implement Employer policy.

32. "Municipal employee" means any employee of a Municipal Employer, whether or not in the classified service of the Municipal Employer, except:

a. Elected officials and administrative officials;

b. Board and commission members;

c. Certified teachers, police officers, and fire fighters;

d. Confidential and supervisory employees;

e. Casual employees, meaning those persons hired for an occasional period to perform special jobs or functions;

f. Seasonal employees, meaning those persons employed to perform work on a seasonal basis of not more than sixteen (16) weeks, or who are part of an annual job employment program; and

g. Employees of authorities except housing authorities not under direct management by a Municipality who work less than twenty (20) hours per week.

33. "Municipal Employer" means any political subdivision of the State, including any town, city, borough, district, school board, housing authority, or other authority established by law, and any person(s) designated by the Municipal Employer to act in its interest in dealing with Municipal employees.

34. "Non-electronic filing" means a process by which a paper document or other non-electronic item is filed with the Board.

35. "Non-electronic signature" means a handwritten signature, signed in blue ink, applied to an original document that is then scanned and electronically filed with the Board in PDF format.

36. "Notice of Electronic Filing Confirmation" means a document generated by the Electronic Document Management System confirming when a document is electronically filed.

37. "Original document" means all documentation filed with the Board, electronically, shall be deemed the original record in each matter.

38. "Party" means any person, employee organization or public Employer who has filed a Petition or Charge under the Act or these Rules; has been named as a party in a Complaint, Petition or other matter under these Rules; or whose Motion to Intervene has been granted by the Board.

39. "Person" means one (1) or more individuals, partnerships, associations, corporations, legal representatives, trustees, trustees in bankruptcy or receivers.

40. "Personal Identification Number (PIN) Verification" means a secured four (4) digit number that is used in combination with a party's identifying information, for the purpose of verification of recognition, for the electronic submission of documentation with the Rhode Island State Labor Relations Board.

41 "Petitioner" means the moving party who signs and/or files a Petition.

42. "Policies of Act" means the policies set forth in R.I. Gen. Laws § 28-7-2.

43. "Portable Document Format (PDF)" means an electronic document filed in a portable document format (PDF), which is readable by the free Adobe® Acrobat® Reader.

44. "Professional employee" means:

a. Any employee engaged in work:

(1) Predominantly intellectual and varied in character; as opposed to routine mental, manual, mechanical or physical work;

(2) Involving the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment in its performance;

(3) Of such a character that the output produced, or the result accomplished, cannot be standardized in relation to a given period of time;

(4) Requiring knowledge of an advanced type in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction and study in an institution of higher learning or a hospital, as distinguished from a general academic education, or from an apprenticeship, or from training in the performance of routine, manual, or physical processes; or

b. Any employee who:

(1) Has completed the courses of specialized intellectual instruction and study described in § 1.2(A)(44)(a)(4) of this Part; and

(2) Is performing related work under the supervision of a professional person to qualify himself or herself to become a professional employee as defined in § 1.2(A)(44)(a) of this Part.

45. "Protected information" means any personal information, the nature of which warrants protection from unlimited public access, including:

a. Social Security Numbers;

b. Financial account numbers;

c. Dates of birth;

d. Names of minor children;

e. Individual taxpayer identification numbers;

f. Personal identification numbers; and

g. Other unique identifying numbers.

46. "Registered user" means an individual who can electronically file documents through the use of a username and password.

47. "Respondent" means the party who is required to file an Answer to a Petition and/or Complaint for an alleged prohibited practice, requiring the respondent to take some form of action or halt an activity.

48. "Rules and Regulations" means the policies and guidelines of the State Labor Relations Board.

49. "Seasonal employee" means those persons employed to perform work on a seasonal basis of not more than sixteen (16) weeks, or who is part of an annual job employment program.

a. In connection with this definition, "seasonal basis" shall also mean employment that depends upon, or varies with the seasons of the year, (winter, spring, summer, and fall) or is dependent upon a particular and regular employment.

50. "Signature" means a registered user's username and password accompanied by a "non-electronic signature" and the entry of a PIN.

51. "Signature Affirmation Document" means an affirmation of support by a group of individuals authorizing a transfer procedure by submission of a listing of names, titles of positions, original signatures and date of signatures.

52. "Supervisory employee" means any individual having authority, in the interest of the Employer, to hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward, or discipline other employees, or responsibly to direct them, or to adjust their grievances, or effectively to recommend such action, if in connection with the foregoing, the exercise of such authority is not of a merely routine or clerical nature, but requires the use of independent judgment.

53. "Table" means any instance that causes a matter to be held by the Board for a short period of time that does not substantiate an abeyance status.

54. "Unfair Labor Practices" means only those unfair labor practices listed in R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 28-7-13 and 28-7-13.1.

55. "Unit Clarification" means a request filed by the exclusive bargaining agent, a Municipality, or the State of Rhode Island, seeking any of the following:

a. Accretion of one (1) or more positions to an existing bargaining unit, whether originally constituted through a consent election or a contested election procedure; or

b. Exclusion of one (1) or more positions from an existing bargaining unit, whether originally constituted through a consent election or a contested election procedure.

56. "Unit Classification" means the original determination of a bargaining unit, whether done by a consent election or a contested election.

465 R.I. Code R. 465-RICR-10-00-1.2

Amended effective 2/1/2021