‘Evergreen’ proposal nixed from 1 bill, filed in another

The fiscal 2011 supplemental bill enacted by the Legislature on Oct. 17 stripped out a proposal, included in the governor’s original bill, that would have reversed a Supreme Judicial Court decision and allowed “evergreen” clauses in public-sector collective bargaining agreements.

The proposal is not dead, however. While the Legislature was in the final stages of deliberating the fiscal 2011 bill, the governor filed a fiscal 2012 supplemental budget bill that includes the same proposal.

In October 2010, the SJC ruled that state law (Ch. 150E) is clearly written to “limit the term of a collective bargaining agreement to not more than three years.” Evergreen clauses, which provide that all terms of a contract are in force until a new contract is signed, are therefore invalid, the court found.

The governor’s FY12 supplemental budget bill would amend Chapter 150E to state that a collective bargaining agreement may remain in effect until a new one is reached. The language would make the change retroactive, meaning that many local personnel decisions made since the SJC’s ruling could be subject to appeals or grievances following arbitration procedures in previously expired contracts.

The MMA strongly opposes the proposal, which is expected to be revisited before formal legislative sessions end in mid-November.