ARTICLE 31 ‐ LABOR/MANAGEMENT COMMITTEES
Section 1. Purpose. The Employer and its Appointing Authorities, and the Union and its affiliated Local Unions, hereby endorse the goal of a mutually constructive, cooperative relationship between the parties. To help to promote and foster such a relationship, the parties agree to establish a structure of joint labor‐management committees, at both statewide and agency levels.
Section 2. Statewide Committees. (This level is reserved for last resort escalations)
Section 3. Local Labor/Management Committees. A Local Labor/Management Committee shall be established for each State agency and/or principal place of employment (for example: correctional facilities, regional treatment centers, colleges, Transportation Department districts, Department of Natural Resources regions).
Local Committees shall be composed of no more than seven (7) representatives from each State agency and the Local Union(s). The purpose of such Committees shall be to improve communications between the Appointing Authority and the Local Union and to serve as a forum in which issues of mutual concern can be discussed. The Committees shall have no authority to conduct negotiations on contractual issues nor are they intended to serve as a substitute for the Grievance Procedure of this Agreement. Local Labor/Management Committees in existence on the effective date of this Agreement, may continue as currently constituted; however, such committees shall be governed by the general conditions expressed herein. Local Labor/Management Committees shall meet at least quarterly, or as mutually agreed.
Meetings shall be held during normal day shift working hours, and members shall receive no loss of pay for time spent at committee meetings. Travel and subsistence expenses incurred shall not be the responsibility of the Appointing Authority. However, reasonable travel time to and from committee meetings shall be without loss of pay, not to exceed the employee's regularly scheduled workday.
NOTE: In 2014, a routine labor management committee meeting discussed reported hiring discrimination against a military veteran, but there was no proof then any protected class job applicant blacklists, including veterans, in NE Minnesota, were covertly being compiled and sold to area employers for job applicant profiling, using data unethically and illegally obtained from health insurance underwriting services, leaked hospital and clinical patient appointment records or State personnel sick leave records. A majority vote of both labor and management passed, committee meeting frequency was reduced, thereby also reducing burdensome payroll expense for employee paid time and travel involved to regularly attending such meetings in person. Labor/managment committee meetings going forward were to be merged into management existng schedule of seasonal safety, training and HR meeting agendas.
Local Labor/Management Committees may review and discuss agency training policies and expenditures, training on the use of new equipment and computer software, notice and training regarding new or revised laws and regulations, training on sexual harassment, issues related to assigned training, employee parking charges and other related subjects. The Committees may also discuss the issuance and administration of work rules, including dress codes, and designation of positions as “weather essential”. Where no uniform committee exists, upon request of the Local Union or policy committee, the Appointing Authority or Agency shall meet and confer on uniform issues. The parties shall include the matter of employee involvement in purchasing decisions on the agenda of at least one (1) meeting of the Labor/Management Committee during the term of this Agreement. (See June 30, 1991, letter in Appendix N.)