§ 3607. 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 early care and education provider or group of providers or any individual or labor organization acting on the providers' behalf:

(A) alleging that not less than 30 percent of the providers in the petitioned bargaining unit wish to be represented for collective bargaining and that the State declines to recognize their representative as the representative defined in this chapter; or

(B) asserting that the labor organization that has been certified as the bargaining representative no longer represents a majority of early care and education providers.

(2) By the State alleging that one or more individuals or labor organizations have presented a claim to be recognized as the exclusive representative defined in this chapter.

(b) The Board shall investigate the petition and, if it has reasonable cause to believe that a question concerning representation exists, shall conduct a hearing. The hearing shall be held before the Board, a member of the Board, 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 and certify to the parties, in writing, the results of the election.

(c) In determining whether or not a question of representation exists, the Board shall apply the same regulations and rules of decision-making 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 the Board.

(e) For the purposes of this chapter, the State may voluntarily recognize the exclusive representative of a unit of early care and education providers if the labor organization demonstrates that it has the support of a majority of the providers in the unit it seeks to represent and no other employee organization seeks to represent the providers. (Added 2013, No. 187 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. June 5, 2014.)