34:13A-5.1 Establishment of division of public employment relations and division of private employment dispute settlement.

5. There is hereby established a Division of Public Employment Relations and a Division of Private Employment Dispute Settlement.

(a) The Division of Public Employment Relations shall be concerned exclusively with matters of public employment related to determining negotiating units, elections, certifications and settlement of public employee representative and public employer disputes and grievance procedures. For the purpose of complying with the provisions of Article V, Section IV, paragraph 1 of the New Jersey Constitution, the Division of Public Employment Relations is hereby allocated within the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, and located in the city of Trenton, but notwithstanding said allocation, the office shall be independent of any supervision or control by the department or by any board or officer thereof.

(b) The Division of Private Employment Dispute Settlement shall assist the New Jersey State Board of Mediation in the resolution of disputes in private employment. The New Jersey State Board of Mediation, its objectives and the powers and duties granted by this act and the act of which this act is amendatory and supplementary shall be concerned exclusively with matters of private employment and the office shall continue to be located in the city of Newark.

(c) In the case of a private employer not regulated by the National Labor Relations Board pursuant to the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. s.151 et seq.), the New Jersey State Board of Mediation shall designate a representative for a unit of employees of the private employer for the purposes of collective bargaining when:

(1) In any case in which the board determines that only one employee organization is seeking to be the majority representative, that organization demonstrates that a majority of employees in the unit have shown their preference to have that organization be their representative by signing authorization cards indicating that preference; or

(2) The employees in the unit have selected a representative by an election that conforms with the procedures outlined in section 159 of the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. s.159).

For the purposes of paragraph (1) of this subsection, an authorization card indicating preference shall not be valid unless it is printed in a language understood by the employee who signs it.

Any employer who refuses to provide information requested by the New Jersey State Board of Mediation or otherwise acts to prevent the board from carrying out its responsibilities pursuant to this subsection (c) shall have violated this subsection and shall be liable to a fine of not more than $1,000, to be recovered under the "Penalty Enforcement Law of 1999," P.L.1999, c.274 (C.2A:58-10 et seq.) in the name of the board and to be used by the board for costs of implementing this subsection. In addition, an employee organization seeking to represent the employees of the employer may institute an action in a court of competent jurisdiction to obtain an injunction to restrain any continuation of the violation, to reimburse the employee organization or any affected employee for any damages caused by the violation plus reasonable costs and attorney's fees of the action.

The provisions of this subsection (c) shall not apply to religious or parochial schools or their employees or to any private nonprofit organization exempt from federal taxation under section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (26 U.S.C. s. 501).

(d) In the case of a private employer regulated by the National Labor Relations Board pursuant to the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. s. 151 et seq.), the New Jersey State Board of Mediation shall, based on the mutual agreement of the private employer and an organization seeking to represent employees of the employer, designate a representative for a unit of employees of the private employer for the purposes of collective bargaining when:

(1) In any case in which the board determines that only one employee organization is seeking to be the majority representative, that organization demonstrates, in a manner mutually agreed upon by the representative and the employer, that a majority of employees in the unit have shown their preference to have that organization be their representative by signing authorization cards indicating that preference; or

(2) the employees in the unit have selected the representative by an election that conforms with the procedures outlined in section 159 of the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. s.159).

(e) For the purposes of subsections (c) and (d) of this section, "employee unit" means an appropriate group of employees for the purposes of collective bargaining as determined, if necessary, by the New Jersey State Board of Mediation.

L.1968,c.303,s.5; amended 1973, c.326, s.2; 2005, c.161, s.1.