Session of 1998
                   
SENATE BILL No. 688
         
By Committee on Ways and Means
         
3-17
            9             AN ACT concerning public officers and employees; relating to eligibility
10             for representation by employee organizations; concerning eligibility for
11             the state health care benefits program; amending K.S.A. 75-4322 and
12             75-6501 and repealing the existing sections.
13            
14       Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas:
15           Section 1. K.S.A. 75-4322 is hereby amended to read as follows:
16       75-4322. As used in this act:
17           (a) ``Public employee'' means any person employed by any public
18       agency, except those persons classed as supervisory employees, profes-
19       sional employees of school districts, as defined by subsection (c) of K.S.A.
20       72-5413 and amendments thereto, elected and management officials, and
21       confidential employees and graduate students enrolled in a state board
22       of regents institution as defined in K.S.A. 76-711, and amendments
23       thereto, who receive teaching and research assistantships.
24           (b) ``Supervisory employee'' means any individual who normally per-
25       forms different work from his subordinates, having authority, in the in-
26       terest of the employer, to hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote,
27       discharge, assign, reward, or discipline other employees, or responsibly
28       to direct them, or to adjust their grievances, or effectively to recommend
29       a preponderance of such actions, if in connection with the foregoing the
30       exercise of such authority is not of a merely routine or clerical nature,
31       but requires the use of independent judgment. A memorandum of agree-
32       ment may provide for a definition of ``supervisory employees'' as an al-
33       ternative to the definition herein.
34           (c) ``Confidential employee'' means any employee whose unrestricted
35       access to confidential personnel files or other information concerning the
36       administrative operations of a public agency, or whose functional respon-
37       sibilities or knowledge in connection with the issues involved in the meet
38       and confer process would make his membership in the same employee
39       organization as other employees incompatible with his official duties.
40           (d) ``Professional employee'' includes any employee: (1) Whose work
41       is predominantly intellectual and varied in character as opposed to routine
42       mental, manual, mechanical, or physical work; involves the consistent ex-
43       ercise of discretion and judgment; requires knowledge of an advanced

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  1       type in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by prolonged
  2       study in an institution of higher learning; or (2) who has completed
  3       courses of prolonged study as described in paragraph (1) of this subsec-
  4       tion, and is performing related work under the supervision of a profes-
  5       sional person in order to qualify as a professional employee as defined in
  6       paragraph (1) of this subsection; or (3) attorneys-at-law or any other per-
  7       son who is registered as a qualified professional by a board of registration
  8       or other public body established for such purposes under the laws of this
  9       state.
10           (e) ``Elected and management officials'' means any elective official
11       and any appointed officer charged by law with major administrative and
12       management responsibilities.
13           (f) ``Public agency'' or ``public employer'' means every governmental
14       subdivision, including any county, township, city, school district, special
15       district, board, commission, or instrumentality or other similar unit whose
16       governing body exercises similar governmental powers, and the state of
17       Kansas and its state agencies.
18           (g) ``Governing body'' means the legislative body, policy board or
19       other authority of the public employer possessing legislative or policy-
20       making responsibilities pursuant to the constitution or laws of this state.
21           (h) ``Representative of the public agency'' means the chief executive
22       officer of the public employer or his or her designee, except when the
23       governing body provides otherwise, and except in the case of the state of
24       Kansas and its state agencies. Such chief executive shall be for counties,
25       the chairman of the board of county commissioners; for cities, the mayor,
26       city manager or city superintendent; for school districts, the president of
27       the board of education; and for other local units, such similar elected or
28       appointed officer. In the case of the state of Kansas and its state agencies,
29       ``representative of the public employer'' means a team of persons, the
30       head of which shall be a person designated by the secretary of adminis-
31       tration and the heads of the state agency or state agencies involved or
32       one person designated by each such state agency head.
33           (i) ``Employee organization'' means any organization which includes
34       employees of a public agency and which has as one of its primary purposes
35       representing such employees in dealings with that public agency over
36       conditions of employment and grievances.
37           (j) ``Recognized employee organization'' means an employee organi-
38       zation which has been formally acknowledged by the public agency or
39       certified as representing a majority of the employees of an appropriate
40       unit.
41           (k) ``Business agent'' means any authorized person who is a full-time
42       official of an employee organization and whose principal duties are to act
43       or to attempt to act for an employee organization (1) in proceedings to

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  1       meet and confer and other proceedings involving a memorandum of
  2       agreement, (2) in servicing existing memorandums of agreement, or (3)
  3       in organizing employees into employee organizations.
  4           (l) ``Board'' means the public employee relations board established
  5       pursuant to this act.
  6           (m) ``Meet and confer in good faith'' is the process whereby the rep-
  7       resentative of a public agency and representatives of recognized employee
  8       organizations have the mutual obligation personally to meet and confer
  9       in order to exchange freely information, opinions and proposals to en-
10       deavor to reach agreement on conditions of employment.
11           (n) ``Memorandum of agreement'' means a written memorandum of
12       understanding arrived at by the representatives of the public agency and
13       a recognized employee organization which may be presented to the gov-
14       erning body of a public employer or its statutory representative and to
15       the membership of such organization for appropriate action.
16           (o) ``Mediation'' means effort by an impartial third party to assist in
17       reconciling a dispute regarding conditions of employment between rep-
18       resentatives of the public agency and recognized employee organizations
19       through interpretation and advice.
20           (p) ``Fact-finding'' means investigation of such a dispute by an indi-
21       vidual, panel, or board with the fact-finder submitting a report to the
22       parties describing the issues involved; the report shall contain recom-
23       mendations for settlement and may be made public.
24           (q) ``Arbitration'' means interpretation of the terms of an existing or
25       a new memorandum of agreement or investigation of disputes by an im-
26       partial third party whose decision may or may not be final and binding.
27       Arbitration is advisory when the results are not binding upon the parties;
28       it is final and binding when both parties, of their own volition, agree to
29       submit a dispute to, and to abide by the decision of, the impartial third
30       party.
31           (r) ``Strike'' means an action taken for the purpose of coercing a
32       change in the conditions, rights, privileges or obligations of employment
33       through the failure by concerted action with others to report for duty or
34       to work at usual capability in the performance of the normal duties of
35       employment.
36           (s) ``Lockout'' means action taken by the public employer to provoke
37       interruptions of or prevent the continuity of work normally and usually
38       performed by the employees for the purpose of coercing the employees
39       into relinquishing rights guaranteed by this act.
40           (t) ``Conditions of employment'' means salaries, wages, hours of work,
41       vacation allowances, sick and injury leave, number of holidays, retirement
42       benefits, insurance benefits, prepaid legal service benefits, wearing ap-
43       parel, premium pay for overtime, shift differential pay, jury duty and

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  1       grievance procedures, but nothing in this act shall authorize the adjust-
  2       ment or change of such matters which have been fixed by statute or by
  3       the constitution of this state.
  4           (u) ``Grievance'' means a statement of dissatisfaction by a public em-
  5       ployee, supervisory employee, employee organization or public employer
  6       concerning interpretation of a memorandum of agreement or traditional
  7       work practice.
  8           (v) ``Budget submission date'' means (1) for any public employers
  9       subject to the budget law in K.S.A. 79-2925 et seq. the date of July 1, and
10       (2) for any other public employer the date fixed by law. ``Budget submis-
11       sion date'' means, in the case of the state and its state agencies, the date
12       of September 15.
13           (w) ``Legislature'' means the legislature of the state of Kansas.
14           (x) ``State agency'' means the same as is ascribed thereto in K.S.A.
15       75-3701 and amendments thereto.
16           Sec. 2. K.S.A. 75-6501 is hereby amended to read as follows: 75-
17       6501. (a) Within the limits of appropriations made or available therefor
18       and subject to the provisions of appropriation acts relating thereto, the
19       Kansas state employees health care commission shall develop and provide
20       for the implementation and administration of a state health care benefits
21       program.
22           (b) The state health care benefits program may provide benefits for
23       persons qualified to participate in the program for hospitalization, medical
24       services, surgical services, nonmedical remedial care and treatment ren-
25       dered in accordance with a religious method of healing and other health
26       services. The program may include such provisions as are established by
27       the Kansas state employees health care commission, including but not
28       limited to qualifications for benefits, services covered, schedules and
29       graduation of benefits, conversion privileges, deductible amounts, limi-
30       tations on eligibility for benefits by reason of termination of employment
31       or other change of status, leaves of absence, military service or other
32       interruptions in service and other reasonable provisions as may be estab-
33       lished by the commission.
34           (c) The Kansas state employees health care commission shall desig-
35       nate by rules and regulations those persons who are qualified to partici-
36       pate in the state health care benefits program, including active and retired
37       public officers and employees and their dependents as defined by rules
38       and regulations of the commission. In designating persons qualified to
39       participate in the state health care benefits program, the commission may
40       establish such conditions, restrictions, limitations and exclusions as the
41       commission deems reasonable. Each person who was formerly elected or
42       appointed and qualified to an elective state office and who was covered
43       immediately preceding the date such person ceased to hold such office

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  1       by the provisions of group health insurance or a health maintenance or-
  2       ganization plan under the law in effect prior to August 1, 1984, or the
  3       state health care benefits program in effect after that date, shall continue
  4       to be qualified to participate in the state health care benefits program
  5       and shall pay the cost of participation in the program as established and
  6       in accordance with the procedures prescribed by the commission if such
  7       person chooses to participate therein.
  8           (d) The state health care benefits program established under this act
  9       shall be effective on and after August 1, 1984.
10           (e) On and after the effective date of this act, the Kansas state em-
11       ployees health care commission shall not establish a class of persons who
12       are officers or employees of a state agency as eligible to participate in the
13       state health care benefits program unless such officers and employees are
14       working in a position requiring at least 1,000 hours of work per year.
15       Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to affect any class of persons
16       eligible to participate in the state health care benefit program on the
17       effective date of this act.
18           Sec. 3. K.S.A. 75-4322 and 75-6501 are hereby repealed.
19           Sec. 4. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its
20       publication in the Kansas register.
21      
22