273-A:1 Definitions.

      In this chapter:

      I. "Board" means the public employee labor relations board created by RSA 273-A:2.

      II. "Board of the public employer" means the executive body of the public employer, such as the city council, board of selectmen, the school board or the county commissioners.

      (a) For purposes of this chapter:

      (1) The board of the public employer for executive branch state employees means the governor and council.

      (2) The board of the public employer for the judiciary means the chief justice of the supreme court with the advice and consent of the judicial branch administrative council appointed pursuant to supreme court rule 54.

      (b) In certain political subdivisions of the state the board of the public employer may also be the legislative body.

      III. "Budget submission date" means the date by which, under law or practice, the public employer's proposed budget is to be submitted to the legislative or other similar body of the government, or to the city council in the case of a city, for final action. In the case of a town, school district or supervisory union it means February 1 of each year, except in the case of a city school district or city school administrative unit which has a separate budget submission date applied to it by the city.

      IV. "Cost item" means any benefit acquired through collective bargaining whose implementation requires an appropriation by the legislative body of the public employer with which negotiations are being conducted.

      V. "Grievance" means an alleged violation, misinterpretation or misapplication with respect to one or more public employees, of any provision of an agreement reached under this chapter.

      VI. "Impasse" means the failure of the 2 parties, having exhausted all their arguments, to achieve agreement in the course of good faith bargaining, resulting in a deadlock in negotiations.

      VII. "Legislative body" means that governmental body having the power to appropriate public money. The legislative body of the state university system shall be the board of trustees.

      VIII. "Professional employee" means any employee engaged in work predominantly intellectual and varied in character, involving the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment, and requiring knowledge in a discipline customarily acquired in a formal program of advanced study.

      IX. "Public employee" means any person employed by a public employer except:

      (a) Persons elected by popular vote;

      (b) Persons appointed to office by the chief executive or legislative body of the public employer;

      (c) Persons whose duties imply a confidential relationship to the public employer; or

      (d) Persons in a probationary or temporary status, or employed seasonally, irregularly or on call. For the purposes of this chapter, however, no employee shall be determined to be in a probationary status who shall have been employed for more than 12 months or who has an individual contract with his employer, nor shall any employee be determined to be in a temporary status solely by reason of the source of funding of the position in which he is employed.

      X. "Public employer" means the state and any political subdivision thereof, the judicial branch of the state, any quasi-public corporation, council, commission, agency or authority, and the state university system.

      XI. "Terms and conditions of employment" means wages, hours and other conditions of employment other than managerial policy within the exclusive prerogative of the public employer, or confided exclusively to the public employer by statute or regulations adopted pursuant to statute. The phrase "managerial policy within the exclusive prerogative of the public employer" shall be construed to include but shall not be limited to the functions, programs and methods of the public employer, including the use of technology, the public employer's organizational structure, and the selection, direction and number of its personnel, so as to continue public control of governmental functions.

      XII. "Written majority authorization" means writings signed and dated by employees in the form of authorization cards, petitions, or such other written evidence as the public employee labor relations board under RSA 273-A:10 shall find suitable, in which a majority of employees in an appropriate bargaining unit designate an employee organization as their representative for the purpose of collective bargaining. Current employee signatures must be dated within the 6 months preceding the date on which the writings are offered to establish majority and exclusive representative status.

      Source. 1975, 490:2. 1977, 437:1. 1983, 270:1, eff. Aug. 17, 1983. 2001, 170:1, 2, eff. Jan. 1, 2002. 2007, 107:1, eff. June 11, 2007; 368:1, eff. Sept. 15, 2007.