1. For the purposes of this chapter, to bargain collectively means the performance of the mutual obligations of the employer and the representative of the employees to meet at reasonable times and confer in good faith with respect to wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment, or the negotiation or renegotiation of an agreement, or any question thereunder, and the execution of a written contract incorporating any agreement reached if requested by either party, but such obligation does not compel either party to agree to a proposal or require the making of a concession. 2. When there is in effect a collective bargaining contract, the duty to bargain also means that no party to such contract may terminate or modify such contract at the conclusion of its term until sixty days after either party mails notice of a desire to terminate or to modify. A strike or lockout for economic purposes is unlawful until the end of the sixty-day period. The duty to bargain collectively continues despite termination of a collective bargaining contract unless the employee bargaining representative has lost its majority status.
34-12-05. Exclusive representation - Employees' adjustment of grievances directly with employer. 1. Representatives designated or selected for the purpose of collective bargaining of the employees in a unit appropriate for such purposes are exclusive representatives of all the employees in such unit for the purposes of collective bargaining in respect to rates of pay, wages, hours of employment, or other conditions of employment. 2. Any individual employee or group of employees has the right at any time to present grievances to the individual's or group's employer and to have such grievances adjusted, without the intervention of the bargaining representative, as long as the adjustment is not inconsistent with the terms of a collective bargaining contract or agreement then in effect. The bargaining representative must be given an opportunity to be present at such adjustment.