Labor Relations

As districts that will have collective bargaining negotiations this year are gathering information and preparing proposals, the State Employment Relations Board’s (SERB) site has a plethora of data to assist your work.

Earlier this week, the Department of Labor (DOL) provided an opinion on wheth

Join the Division of Legal Services at OSBA’s offices on Friday, Sept. 6 for our second collective bargaining workshop. The program will cover the bargaining process, current issues and some difficult subjects in school negotiations. You will also leave with important tips for effective bargaining and discuss some frequently exchanged bargaining proposals.

The Division of Legal Services is offering the following two upcoming events this month:

OSBA’s Division of Legal Services will be offering a new seminar on October 1, 2018, focusing on the basic theories and practices of collective bargaining.

In a 5-4 decision, the US Supreme Court ruled today that the State of Illinois’ extraction of agency fees from non-consenting public-sector employees violates the First Amendment.

OSBA’s Division of Legal Services always is looking for ways to provide our members with new and useful resources. We’ve been hard at work during the first half of 2018 updating existing resources, creating new ones and planning workshops to provide members with the latest and greatest school law-related information.

In 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education that public-sector unions may be allowed to charge non-members an agency fee, also known as “fair-share.” These fees must be used strictly for the union’s overhead and administrative costs, such as the expenses incurred in negotiating contracts that benefit and apply to all employees, including those who are not dues-paying members of the union.

Earlier this year, the OSBA Legal Assistance Fund (LAF) was asked to support the Tolles Career and Technical School Board of Education.  The LAF board of trustees voted to write an amicus brief on behalf of the board and to provide assistance with the cost of the litigation.  On November 21, the 12^th Appellate District Court decided in favor of the board of education. 

On July 6, 2015, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published its much-anticipated proposed changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). These proposed regulations are the response to President Obama’s March 2014 directive to the Secretary of Labor to “update and modernize” the overtime exemption rules under the FLSA. If adopted, the changes will have a significant impact on employers’ abilities to treat certain employees as exempt from receiving overtime compensation.

Current regulations