Representation Fairness Restoration Act

Representation Fairness Restoration Act - Amends the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to revise requirements for National Labor Relation Board (NLRB) determination of an appropriate bargaining unit before an election of collective bargaining representation. (In effect reverses the NLRB's August 26, 2011, decision in Specialty Healthcare and Rehabilitation of Mobile and its June 22, 2011, rulemaking regarding proposed changes to procedures involving the election of collective bargaining representation.)

Replaces the current restriction in the meaning of collective bargaining unit to employer unit, craft unit, plant unit, or subdivision. Requires the NLRB, instead, to determine a unit as appropriate for collective bargaining if it consists of employees that share a sufficient community of interest. Specifies factors the NLRB must consider when making such determinations.

Prohibits exclusion of employees from the unit unless the interests of the group seeking a separate unit are sufficiently distinct from those of other employees to warrant the establishment of a separate unit.

[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2347 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2347

To amend the National Labor Relations Act with respect to the criteria 
    for determining employee units appropriate for the purposes of 
                         collective bargaining.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 13, 2013

Mr. Price of Georgia (for himself, Mr. Kline, Mr. McKeon, Mr. Wilson of 
 South Carolina, Mr. Marchant, Mr. Roe of Tennessee, Mr. Guthrie, Mr. 
DesJarlais, Mr. Rokita, Mr. Bucshon, Mr. Gowdy, Mrs. Roby, Mr. Heck of 
  Nevada, Mr. Bachus, Mr. Westmoreland, and Mr. Long) introduced the 
 following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and 
                             the Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the National Labor Relations Act with respect to the criteria 
    for determining employee units appropriate for the purposes of 
                         collective bargaining.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Representation Fairness Restoration 
Act''.

SEC. 2. DETERMINATION OF APPROPRIATE UNITS FOR COLLECTIVE BARGAINING.

    Section 9(b) of the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. 159(b)) 
is amended--
            (1) by redesignating paragraphs (1) through (3) as 
        subparagraphs (A) through (C);
            (2) by striking ``The Board shall decide'' and all that 
        follows through ``or subdivision thereof:'' and inserting the 
        following: ``(1) In each case, prior to an election, the Board 
        shall determine, in order to assure to employees the fullest 
        freedom in exercising the rights guaranteed by this Act, the 
        unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining. 
        Unless otherwise stated in this Act, and excluding any 
        bargaining unit determination promulgated through rulemaking 
        before August 26, 2011, the unit appropriate for purposes of 
        collective bargaining shall consist of employees that share a 
        sufficient community of interest. In determining whether 
        employees share a sufficient community of interest, the Board 
        shall consider--
                    ``(A) similarity of wages, benefits, and working 
                conditions;
                    ``(B) similarity of skills and training;
                    ``(C) centrality of management and common 
                supervision;
                    ``(D) extent of interchange and frequency of 
                contact between employees;
                    ``(E) integration of the work flow and 
                interrelationship of the production process;
                    ``(F) the consistency of the unit with the 
                employer's organizational structure;
                    ``(G) similarity of job functions and work; and
                    ``(H) the bargaining history in the particular unit 
                and the industry.
        To avoid the proliferation or fragmentation of bargaining 
        units, employees shall not be excluded from the unit unless the 
        interests of the group seeking a separate unit are sufficiently 
        distinct from those of other employees to warrant the 
        establishment of a separate unit. Whether additional employees 
        should be included in a proposed unit shall be determined based 
        on whether such additional employees and proposed unit members 
        share a sufficient community of interest, with the sole 
        exception of proposed accretions to an existing unit, in which 
        the inclusion of additional employees shall be based on whether 
        such additional employees and existing unit members share an 
        overwhelming community of interest and the additional employees 
        have little or no separate identity.''; and
            (3) by striking ``Provided, That the Board'' and inserting 
        the following:
    ``(2) The Board''.
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