LINCOLN — The state’s three largest business organizations proposed an extensive list of changes Tuesday to a bill aimed at overhauling Nebraska’s much-maligned state labor court.
The changes would gut the proposal now before the Legislature and shift the power for deciding impasses between public employee unions and their employers to elected officials and away from the Nebraska Commission of Industrial Relations.
The list of changes also includes an apparent about-face.
Business groups had asked that the CIR utilize salaries and benefits paid in comparable private sector jobs in finding prevailing wages for public sector positions.
But a letter from the three business groups Tuesday said private employers should be removed from the comparisons.
The suggestions from the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry and chambers of commerce in Omaha and Lincoln are the first solid recommendations from the powerful business groups since the proposal, Legislative Bill 397, was unveiled four weeks ago.
The letter indicates broad disagreement with the bill as drafted by a group of state senators and attorneys that represent Nebraska cities and public employee labor unions.
State Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha, who led that drafting group, and Barry Kennedy, president of the state chamber, downplayed that.
“I don’t know if we’re quite a ways apart,” said Kennedy. “Most negotiations or discussions start at points apart.”
Lathrop, a Democrat who is chairman of the Business and Labor Committee, said the business groups and other organizations have been invited to submit lists of concerns and suggestions. He said he understood that nothing on the chambers’ list were changes that “they have to have.”
“They would like an opportunity to tell us what their concerns are and if there’s a way to accommodate their concerns,” Lathrop said. “It’s only right to listen to their concerns.”
Lathrop declined to provide an opinion on the changes suggested by the business groups, saying it “would not be constructive” at this time.
Another lawmaker who helped craft the bill, Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha, said the chambers’ proposals go too far.
“I just don’t think we need those kind of dramatic changes, but I think there’s a lot of room for agreement,” said Ashford, who once served as a CIR judge.
The letter reinforces the stance of the three business groups that the CIR should be stripped of its powers to decide contract disputes. That power, the groups have said, should rest with elected officials on city councils, county boards and school boards.
The letter spells out a specific process to do that: a public employer would conduct a “prevalent wage analysis” that would guide bargaining over salaries and benefits with a union. If the union felt that the analysis was deficient, it could prepare and suggest corrections.
If negotiations reached an impasse, a public employer would be allowed to implement their final and best offer.
The CIR, under the chamber’s proposal, would no longer make wage decisions. It would act as an appeals body if either party had concerns about the process of devising the wage analysis.
The letter also suggests other ways to contain costs and recommends that the process be more consistent among all public employers. That would include public schools, which the business groups have said were affected “very little” by LB 397.
The letter also suggests that, rather than compare wages with individual private employers, broader wage surveys or Bureau of Labor Statistics data could be used to determine if public employee wages were fair.
The chamber had earlier expressed concern about private businesses being forced to disclose proprietary information about their compensation, a concern that Lathrop has said would be easy to fix.
While business and tax advocacy groups have been pushing for changes to the CIR, officials of public employee unions have said they’ve made significant concessions to address concerns.
Contact the writer:
402-473-9584, paul.hammel@owh.com
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