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The purpose of this chapter is to improve and maintain relations between city employees and city management. This chapter establishes procedures for the designation of labor organizations to represent certain employee groups, and an orderly process to allow regular employees and their representatives, who have been certified as the exclusive representative of a particular employee group, to meet and confer with the city manager relating to wages, hours, benefits and other conditions of employment to establish recommendations in the form of labor agreements to be submitted to the mayor and council and labor organization memberships for consideration and approval.
This chapter also establishes procedures for the recognition of employee associations that represent professional or supervisory employees and an orderly process to allow the employee associations to meet with the city manager and participate in the formulation of policies effecting annual salaries and benefits.
This chapter also establishes procedures for an orderly process to allow the labor organizations to (1) meet with the city manager or designee outside of the meet and confer process and consult regarding new or modified conditions of employment being considered by management or by mayor and council that are not addressed in approved labor agreements; and (2) meet with the city manager or designee on a regularly scheduled basis to discuss any employment policy matters of concern that any of them might have.
This chapter will be interpreted and implemented consistent with the city's authority under the Arizona Constitution and statutes, City Charter, ordinances, resolutions and civil service rules and regulations.
(Ord. No. 10880, § 2, 3-8-11; Ord. No. 12069, § 2, 1-23-24)
When the city manager or designee and the representatives of the labor organizations meet and confer under Section 14-14, meet and discuss under Section 14-15, meet and consult under Section 14-16, and hold labor-management meetings under Section 14-17 of this chapter, they will do so in good faith.
(Ord. No. 12069, § 2, 1-23-24)
The words, terms and phrases as used in this chapter shall have the same meanings as defined in Sec. 10-3. In addition, the following words, terms and phrases, when used in this chapter, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:
1. Confidential employee means any individual who regularly assists or acts in a confidential capacity to an individual, manager, or supervisor who formulates, determines, and effectuates management, personnel, or labor relations policies, or who has access to confidential or discretionary information regarding the formulation of city policy or procedures; or whose functional responsibilities or knowledge concerning employee relations makes the employee's membership in an labor organization incompatible with that employee's duties.
2. Day means calendar day except as otherwise stated.
3. Employee association means the group that represents or seeks to represent professional or supervisory City employees in the meet and discuss process.
4. Employee group may be members of an employee association or labor organization.
5. Excluded employee employee means employees of the city manager's office except employees of the manager's program offices; employees of the offices of mayor and council; employees of the human resources department; police chief, deputy police chief and assistant police chief; fire chief and assistant fire chief; all department directors and deputy directors; program directors; and nonpermanent employees.
6. Fiscal year means the budget term adopted by the city, July 1 through June 30.
7. Initial probationary period means an employee's initial probationary period in conformance with the civil service commission rules which must be completed before the employee becomes a permanent city employee. For purposes of this Chapter, an initial probationary employee may be eligible for representation if designated in the labor agreement and may sign a petition or vote in a representation election if represented under a current labor agreement.
8. Labor agreement means a statement of agreed upon goals and intentions to be implemented through the city's standard legislative and administrative procedures . A labor agreement cannot contradict, supersede, conflict with or modify the Tucson Charter, the Tucson Code, and/or the civil service commission rules.
9. Labor organization means an organization recognized by the mayor and council as authorized to represent employees in permanent positions in specified classifications in the meet and confer process as described in this chapter for the purpose of meeting and conferring relating to wages, hours, benefits and other conditions of employment.
10. Management employee means any city employee who is engaged primarily in executive and management functions and/or is charged with the responsibility of developing, administering or effectuating management policies.
11. Meet and confer means a process requiring the city manager or designee, together with other management representatives to meet with the representatives of a labor organization to discuss and develop mutual recommendations on issues affecting the city and members of the employee group represented by the labor organization, with such mutual recommendations being reduced to a written labor agreement signed by the parties subject to ratification by the members of the employee group and adoption by the mayor and council. The meet and confer process includes discussions of work issues including wages (for purposes of Tucson City Charter Chapter VII, Section 2), benefits, hours and other terms and conditions of employment in connection with the negotiation of new or renewed labor agreements.
12. Meet and consult means the process requiring good faith consultation between the city manager or the manager's designee(s) and the representatives of the labor organizations to discuss new or modified conditions of employment that are proposed by the city manager outside of the meet and confer process and that are not already addressed in approved labor agreements. The meet and consult process is separate and distinct from the meet and confer and/or the meet and discuss processes defined in this chapter. The meet and consult process applies only as provided in Section 14-16 below.
13. Meet and discuss means the process for providing participation by professional and/or supervisory employees in the formulation of policies affecting their annual salaries and benefits, and requiring representatives of the city manager and representatives of the employee association to personally meet at reasonable times in advance of the budget making process and to discuss the proposals for consideration before any recommendations are submitted to the city council by the city manager.
14. Professional employee means city employees in classifications identified as professional in accordance with the Fair Labor Standards Act.
15. Supervisory employee means any individual, except lead persons, police sergeants and fire captains, having authority in the interest of the city either to hire, transfer, suspend, lay-off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward, or discipline other employees, or responsibility to direct them, or to adjust their grievances, or effectively to recommend such action, if in connection with the foregoing exercise of such authority is not of a merely routine or clerical nature, but requires the use of independent judgment.
(Ord. No. 10880, § 2, 3-8-11; Ord. No. 11395, § 1, 8-9-16; Ord. No. 12069, § 2, 1-23-24)
Sec. 14-4(a). The maximum number of labor organizations to be designated for employee representation shall be limited to a total of four as follows:
1. One organization may represent employees consisting of commissioned personnel of the Tucson police department through the rank of sergeant and non-commissioned personnel employed as Community Service Officers (CSO).
2. One organization may represent employees consisting of commissioned personnel of the Tucson fire department through the rank of captain.
3. One organization may represent employees consisting of all clerical, administrative, professional and technical non-supervisory city employees as set forth in the position compensation plan and designated by the director of human resources and filed with the city clerk.
4. One organization may represent employees consisting of all labor and trades non- supervisory employees (including lead persons) as set forth in the position compensation plan and designated by the director of human resources and filed with the city clerk.
Sec. 14-4(b). Employees who have not successfully completed the initial probationary period in conformance with the civil service commission rules may be members of a labor organization subject to the labor agreement. Membership and representation shall not affect the at-will status of the probationary employee. For purposes of this Chapter, an initial probationary employee may be eligible for representation if designated in the labor agreement and may sign a petition or vote in a representation election if represented under a current labor agreement.
(Ord. No. 10880, § 2, 3-8-11; Ord. No. 11395, § 1, 8-9-16; Ord. No. 11733, § 1, 3-3-20; Ord. No. 12069, § 2, 1-23-24)
Sec. 14-5(a). The following employees are ineligible for representation by a labor organization:
1. All commissioned fire personnel at or above the rank of battalion chief.
2. All commissioned police personnel at or above the rank of lieutenant.
3. All other city employees who are supervisory, professional, excluded or confidential employees.
4. Non-permanent (intermittent, seasonal and/or temporary employees as defined in Tucson Code Section 10-3) employees and persons employed on a contract basis.
Sec. 14-5(b). The director of human resources shall have the authority and responsibility, subject to city manager review and approval, for determining which employees are eligible for representation in employee groups consistent with the provisions of this chapter. An employee or a labor organization representing the employee group to which the employee would belong may request that this determination be reviewed by the city manager. The request for review shall set forth the reasons for the disagreement in writing. On review, the city manager's decision to either uphold or overturn the initial determination of eligibility shall be final.
(Ord. No. 10880, § 2, 3-8-11; Ord. No. 11395, § 1, 8-9-16; Ord. No. 12069, § 2, 1-23-24)
Sec. 14-6(a). If there is no current labor agreement in existence, eligible members of the employee group may petition the city clerk to conduct an election not later than one hundred eighty (180) days prior to the beginning of the city's fiscal year to determine if representation is desired within the employee group.
Sec. 14-6(b). During the existence of a current labor agreement between the city of Tucson and an employee group, eligible members of said group may petition the city clerk to conduct an election to determine representation within that group, not earlier than one hundred eighty (180) days prior to the expiration date of the current existing agreement and no later than ninety (90) days prior to the expiration of the then current existing agreement.
Sec. 14-6(c). At any time not earlier than one hundred eighty (180) days and no later than ninety (90) days prior to the expiration of an applicable labor agreement, any member of an employee group can initiate an election to decertify an exclusive representative by submitting a petition containing not less than thirty-three percent (33%) of the eligible employees in the employee group. The petition verification and election shall be conducted in the same manner as a representation election.
Sec. 14-6(d). No more than one (1) election per employee group may be held within a fiscal year.
Sec. 14-6(e). The petition and election procedures set forth in this Section and in this Chapter are not required for the designation and recognition of a successor labor organization. For the purposes of this Chapter, a successor labor organization means a new local chapter of a national or international labor organization that has already been recognized by the mayor and council as authorized to represent eligible employees. Upon confirmation by the governing national or international labor organization that the new local has been approved, the successor labor organization will take the place of its predecessor without an election; and the city manager may approve an amendment to the applicable labor agreement to substitute the successor labor organization for its predecessor.
(Ord. No. 10880, § 2, 3-8-11; Ord. No. 11395, § 1, 8-9-16; Ord. No. 12045, § 1, 10-3-23; Ord. No. 12069, § 2, 1-23-24)
Sec. 14-7(a). The maximum number of employee associations to be designated for representation of professional and supervisory employees shall be limited to a total of four (4) as follows:
1. One association may represent employees consisting of commissioned personnel of the Tucson police department with the rank of lieutenant and above.
2. One association may represent employees consisting of commissioned personnel of the Tucson fire department with the rank of battalion chief and above.
3. One association may represent employees consisting of all city employees in professional classifications as set forth in the city’s position compensation plan.
4. One organization may represent employees consisting of all supervisory employees (excluding lead persons) as set forth in the city’s position compensation plan.
(Ord. No. 10880, § 2, 3-8-11; Ord. No. 11395, § 1, 8-9-16; Ord. No. 12069, § 2, 1-23-24)
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