The Subcommittee on Employee Relations (SER) is tasked with approving or denying state collective bargaining agreements that were negotiated in good faith between the State of Minnesota and AFSCME members and is made up of an equal number of Legislators from both political parties.

When Minnesota Management and Budget submits these contracts to SER, in this case the state multi-unit and Unit 25, it triggers a 30-day deadline for SER to approve or reject the proposed contracts. SER failed to meet and approve or reject these agreements under the deadline of Thursday October 24, 2019.

What does that mean, this means that both the state multi-unit and Unit 25 contracts will move forward as if they were approved by the committee and back pay and other provisions negotiated by members and the state can be carried out. During the 2020 legislative session, however, Legislators in both the House and Senate must vote to pass the contracts with full funding.