§ 1581. Petitions for election; filing, investigations, hearings, determinations

(a) A petition may be filed with the Board, in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Board:

(1) By an employee or group of employees, or any individual or labor organization acting in their behalf, alleging that not less than 30 percent of the employees;

(A) wish to be represented for collective bargaining and that their employer declines to recognize their representative as the representative defined in section 1583 of this title; or

(B) assert that the individual or labor organization which has been certified or is being currently recognized by their employer as the bargaining representative, is no longer a representative as defined in section 1583 of this title.

(2) By an employer, alleging that one or more individuals or labor organizations have presented to him or her a claim to be recognized as the representative defined in section 1583 of this title.

(b) The Board shall investigate the petition and if it has reasonable cause to believe that a question of representation exists shall provide for an appropriate hearing before the Board itself, a member thereof, or its agents appointed for that purpose upon due notice. Written notice of the hearing shall be mailed by certified mail to the parties named in the petition not less than seven days before the hearing. If the Board finds upon the record of the hearing that a question of representation exists, it shall conduct an election by secret ballot marked at the place of election and certify to the parties, in writing, the results thereof.

(c) In determining whether or not a question of representation exists, it shall apply the same regulations and rules of decision regardless of the identity of the persons filing the petition or the kind of relief sought.

(d) Nothing in this chapter prohibits the waiving of hearings by stipulation for a consent election in conformity with regulations and rules of decision of the Board.

(e) For the purposes of this chapter, representatives of employees of a collective bargaining unit voluntarily recognized by an employer through the voluntary negotiation of an employment contract with such unit shall constitute recognized representatives of the employees until such time as any other representative is recognized under the provisions of this section or until such representatives' authority is rescinded under section 1584 of this title. (Added 1967, No. 198, § 8; amended 1973, No. 213 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. April 3, 1974.)