(a) Before September 10 of any year in which the employer and a certified representative bargain collectively, they shall choose an impasse neutral either by agreement or through the processes of the American Arbitration Association. The impasse neutral shall be required to be available during the period from January 20 to February 1. Fees, costs and expenses of the impasse neutral shall be shared equally by the employer and the certified representative.
(b) (1) During the course of collective bargaining, either party may declare an impasse and request the services of the impasse neutral. If the parties have not reached agreement by January 20, an impasse exists.
(2) Whenever an impasse has been reached, the dispute shall be submitted to the impasse neutral. The impasse neutral shall attempt mediation by bringing the parties together voluntarily under such favorable auspices as will tend to effectuate the settlement of the dispute.
(3) If the impasse neutral, in the impasse neutral’s sole discretion, finds that the parties are at a bona fide impasse, the impasse neutral must require each party to submit a final offer which must consist either of a complete draft of a proposed collective bargaining agreement or a complete package proposal, as the impasse neutral chooses. If only complete package proposals are required, the impasse neutral must require the parties to submit jointly a memorandum of all items previously agreed upon.
(4) The impasse neutral may, in the impasse neutral’s discretion, require the parties to submit evidence or make oral or written argument in support of their proposals. The impasse neutral may hold a hearing for this purpose at a time, date and place selected by the impasse neutral. Said hearing must not be open to the public.
(5) On or before February 1, the impasse neutral must select, as a whole, the more reasonable, in the impasse neutral’s judgment, of the final offers submitted by the parties.
(A) The impasse neutral must first evaluate and give the highest priority to the ability of the County to pay for additional short-term and long-term expenditures by considering:
(i) the limits on the County’s ability to raise taxes under State law and the County Charter;
(ii) the added burden on County taxpayers, if any, resulting from increases in revenues needed to fund a final offer; and
(iii) the County’s ability to continue to provide the current standard of all public services.
(B) After evaluating the ability of the County to pay under subparagraph (A), the impasse neutral may only consider:
(i) the interest and welfare of County taxpayers and service recipients;
(ii) past collective bargaining contracts between the parties, including the bargaining history that led to each contract;
(iii) a comparison of wages, hours, benefits, and conditions of employment of similar employees of other public employers in the Washington Metropolitan Area and in Maryland;
(iv) a comparison of wages, hours, benefits, and conditions of employment of other Montgomery County employees; and
(v) wages, benefits, hours and other working conditions of similar employees of private employers in Montgomery County
(6) The impasse neutral must:
(A) not compromise or alter the final offer that he or she selects;
(B) select an offer based on the contents of that offer;
(C) not consider or receive any evidence or argument concerning the history of collective bargaining in this immediate dispute, including offers of settlement not contained in the offers submitted to the impasse neutral; and
(D) consider all previously agreed on items integrated with the specific disputed items to determine the single most reasonable offer.
(7) The offer selected by the impasse neutral, integrated with the previously agreed upon items, shall be deemed to represent the final agreement between the employer and the certified representative, without the necessity of ratification by the parties, and shall have the force and effect of a contract voluntarily entered into and ratified as set forth in subsection 33-80(g) above. The parties shall execute such agreement.
(c) An impasse over a reopener matter must be resolved under the procedures in this subsection. Any other impasse over a matter subject to collective bargaining must be resolved under the impasse procedure in subsections (a) and (b).
(1) If the parties agree in a collective bargaining agreement to bargain over an identified issue on or before a specified date, the parties must bargain under those terms. Each identified issue must be designated as a “reopener matter.”
(2) When the parties initiate collective bargaining under paragraph (1), the parties must choose, by agreement or through the processes of the American Arbitration Association, an impasse neutral who agrees to be available for impasse resolution within 30 days.
(3) If, after bargaining in good faith, the parties are unable to reach agreement on a reopener matter by the deadline specified in the collective bargaining agreement, either party may declare an impasse.
(4) If an impasse is declared under paragraph (3), the dispute must be submitted to the impasse neutral no later than 10 days after impasse is declared.
(5) The impasse neutral must resolve the dispute under the impasse procedure in subsection (b), except that:
(A) the dates in that subsection do not apply;
(B) each party must submit to the impasse neutral a final offer on only the reopener matter; and
(C) the impasse neutral must select the most reasonable of the parties’ final offers no later than 10 days after the impasse neutral receives the final offers.
(6) This subsection applies only if the parties in their collective bargaining agreement have designated:
(A) the specific reopener matter to be bargained;
(B) the date by which bargaining on the reopener matter must begin; and
(C) the deadline by which bargaining on the reopener matter must be completed and after which the impasse procedure must be implemented. (1982 L.M.C., ch. 53, § 3; 2003 L.M.C., ch. 22, § 1; 2004 L.M.C., ch. 15, § 1; 2010 L.M.C., ch. 57, § 1; 2011 L.M.C., ch. 16, § 1.)
Editor’s note—Sections 33-75, 33-76, 33-80, and 33-81 are cited, and Sections 33-80(h) and 33-84(a) are quoted, in Fraternal Order of Police, Montgomery County Lodge 35, Inc., v. Montgomery County, 212 Md. App. 230, 66 A.3d 1183 (2013), affirmed, 437 Md. 618, 89 A.3d 1093 (2014).
Sections 33-75 through 33-85 and Sections 33-101 through 33-112 are cited, and Section 33-80 is quoted, in Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 35 v. Montgomery County, 436 Md. 1, 80 A.3d 686 (2013).
Sections 33-81 and 33-83 are cited and quoted, and Sections 33-75, 33-76, 33-77, 33-78, 33-79, 33-80, 33-82, 33-84 & 33-85 are cited in Fraternal Order of Police, Montgomery County Lodge 35, Inc., v. Montgomery County Executive, 210 Md. App. 117, 62 A.3d 238 (2013). The Court interpreted Section 33-80 regarding collective bargaining agreements and the funding of future County budgets.
2011 L.M.C., ch. 16, was petitioned to referendum and was approved by a majority of the registered voters on November 6, 2012.