Title 21, Title 21: Labor

§ 1453. Approval or rejection; resubmission The Commissioner shall approve or reject a plan in writing within 30 days after receiving it, and in the case of rejection shall state the reasons for the rejection. The reasons for rejection shall be final and nonappealable, but the em…

§ 1454. Effective date; duration A plan shall be effective on the date specified in the plan or on a date mutually agreed upon by the employer and the Commissioner. It shall expire at the end of the sixth full calendar month after its effective date or on the date specified in th…

§ 1455. Revocation (a) The Commissioner may revoke approval of a plan for good cause. The revocation order shall be in writing and shall specify the date the revocation is effective and the reasons for revocation. (b) Good cause shall include violation of any criteria on which ap…

§ 1456. Modification An approved STC plan may be modified by the employer with the approval of the Commissioner. If the hours of work are increased or decreased substantially beyond the level in the original plan, or any other conditions are changed substantially, the Commissione…

§ 1457. Eligibility (a) An individual is eligible to receive STC benefits with respect to any week only if, in addition to eligibility for monetary entitlement, the Commissioner finds that: (1) the individual is employed during that week as a member of an affected unit under an a…

§ 1458. Short-time compensation benefits (a) The short-time weekly benefit amount shall be the product of the regular weekly unemployment compensation amount multiplied by the percentage of reduction in the individual’s usual weekly hours of work. (b) No individual, including a c…

§ 1459. Charging benefits STC benefits paid to an employee shall be charged to the employers in the base period. Reimbursable employers participating in the STC Program shall be assessed for the STC benefits paid their employees. (Added 1985, No. 140 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; amended 20…

§ 1460. Extended benefits program eligibility An individual who has received all of the unemployment compensation or combined unemployment compensation and STC benefits available in a benefit year shall be considered an “exhaustee” as defined under the provisions of subdivision 1…

§ 1461. Misrepresentation; penalties If an approved plan or any representation for implementation of the plan is intentionally and substantially misleading or false, the employer shall be liable for any amount of benefits deemed by the Commissioner to have been improperly paid fr…

§ 1462. Period of dormancy On July 1, 2020, the Short-Time Compensation Program established pursuant to sections 1451–1461 of this subchapter ceased operation. Effective upon completion of the project to implement a modernized information technology system for the unemployment in…

§ 1471. Training benefit program (a) An individual who is otherwise eligible for benefits under this chapter, but who has exhausted his or her maximum benefit amount under section 1340 of this chapter and any other available federally funded extension, is entitled to a maximum of…

§ 1501. Title and declaration of policy (a) This chapter shall be known as the State Labor Relations Act. (b) It is the purpose and policy of this chapter to prescribe the legitimate rights of both employees and employers in their relations with each other, to provide orderly and…

§ 1502. Definitions As used in this chapter: (1) “Board” means the State Labor Relations Board established under 3 V.S.A. § 921. (2) “Chair” means the Chair of the Board. (3) “Commissioner” means the Commissioner of Labor. (4) “Collective bargaining” or “bargaining collectively” …

§ 1503. Rights of employees; mutual duty to bargain (a) Employees shall have the right to self-organization; to form, join, or assist labor organizations; to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choice; and to engage in concerted activities for the purpose of…

§ 1504. General duties (a) All employers and their officers, agents, and employees or representatives shall exert every reasonable effort to make and maintain agreements concerning rates of pay, rules, wages, hours of employment, and conditions of work, and to settle all disputes…

§ 1505. Application This chapter shall not apply to any employer or any labor dispute that affects commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 151–169, unless the National Labor Relations Board shall have ceded jurisdiction to the Board pursuant t…

§ 1543. Appropriate unit; basis for determination (a) The Board shall decide in each case whether, in order to ensure the employees have the fullest freedom in exercising the rights guaranteed by this chapter, the unit appropriate for the purpose of collective bargaining is the e…

§ 1544. Rules (a) The Board shall have authority to adopt, amend, and rescind rules as necessary to carry out the provisions of this chapter. (b) In carrying out this chapter the Board may, under any applicable federal law, rule, or regulation, petition the National Labor Relatio…

§ 1581. Petitions for election; filing, investigations, hearings, determinations (a) A petition may be filed with the Board, in accordance with rules adopted by the Board: (1) By an employee or group of employees, or any individual or labor organization acting in their behalf, al…

§ 1582. Election; eligibility to vote; runoff elections An election shall not be directed in any bargaining unit or any subdivision within which, in the preceding 12 months, a valid election has been held. Employees engaged in an economic strike who are not entitled to reinstatem…

§ 1583. Powers of representatives Representatives designated or selected for the purposes of collective bargaining by the majority of the employees in a unit appropriate for such purposes shall be the exclusive representatives of all the employees in such unit for the purposes of…

§ 1584. Petitions and election to rescind representative’s authority (a) When 30 percent or more of the employees in a bargaining unit covered by an agreement between their employer and a labor organization requiring membership in a labor organization as a condition of employment…

§ 1585. Election conduct Any interested person may file with the Board a charge that employees eligible to vote in an election under this chapter have been coerced or restrained in the exercise of this right. The Board shall investigate the charge. If, upon the basis of its findi…

§ 1621. Unfair labor practices (a) It shall be an unfair labor practice for an employer: (1) To interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of their rights guaranteed in section 1503 of this title. (2) To dominate or interfere with the formation or administratio…

§ 1622. Prevention of unfair labor practices (a) The Board may prevent any person from engaging in any unfair labor practice listed in section 1621 of this title. Whenever a charge is made that any person has engaged in or is engaging in any unfair labor practice, the Board may i…

§ 1623. Judicial review (a) The Board may petition the Supreme Court for the enforcement of such Board order relative thereto and for appropriate temporary relief or restraining order. The Board shall certify and file in the court the entire record in the proceeding, including th…

§ 1624. Contract ratification; annual vote Annually, the employees of the bargaining unit shall meet and discuss whether employees who have chosen not to join the employee organization shall be allowed to vote on the ratification of any collective bargaining agreement entered int…

§ 1631. Definitions As used in this chapter: (1) “Board” means the State Labor Relations Board established by 3 V.S.A. § 921. (2) “Collective bargaining” or “bargaining collectively” means the process by which the State and the exclusive representative of the independent direct s…

§ 1632. Rights of independent direct support providers Independent direct support providers shall have the right to: (1) organize, form, join, or assist a labor organization for the purposes of collective bargaining without interference, restraint, or coercion; (2) bargain collec…

§ 1633. Rights of the State Subject to the rights guaranteed by this chapter and subject to all other applicable laws and rules, nothing in this chapter shall be construed to interfere with the right of the State to: (1) carry out the statutory mandate and goals of the Agency of …

§ 1634. Establishment of limited collective bargaining; scope of bargaining (a) Independent direct support providers, through their exclusive representative, shall have the right to bargain collectively with the State, through the Governor’s designee, under this chapter. (b) Mand…

§ 1635. Election; bargaining unit (a) Petitions and elections shall be conducted pursuant to the procedures provided in 3 V.S.A. §§ 941 and 942, except that only one bargaining unit shall exist for independent direct support providers, and the exclusive representative shall be th…

§ 1636. Mediation; fact-finding; last best offer (a) If, after a reasonable period of negotiation, the representative of the collective bargaining unit and the State reach an impasse, the Board, upon petition of either party, may authorize the parties to submit their differences …

§ 1637. General duties and prohibited conduct (a) The State and the independent direct support providers and their representatives shall make every reasonable effort to make and maintain agreements concerning matters allowed under this chapter and to settle all disputes, whether …

§ 1638. Prevention of unfair practices (a) The Board may prevent the State or a labor organization from engaging in any unfair labor practice listed in section 1637 of this title. Whenever a charge is made that the State or a labor organization has engaged in or is engaging in an…

§ 1639. Negotiated agreement; funding (a) If the State and the exclusive representative reach an agreement, the Governor shall request from the General Assembly an appropriation sufficient to fund the agreement in the next operating budget. If the General Assembly appropriates su…

§ 1640. Rights unaltered (a) A collective bargaining agreement shall not infringe upon any rights of service recipients or their surrogates to hire, direct, supervise, or discontinue the employment of any particular independent direct support provider. (b) Nothing in this section…

§ 1641. Rules The Board shall adopt rules and may amend or rescind rules consistent with this chapter as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this chapter. (Added 2013, No. 48, § 1, eff. May 24, 2013; amended 2025, No. 18, § 35, eff. May 13, 2025.)

§ 1642. Appeal (a) Any person aggrieved by an order or decision of the Board issued under the authority of this chapter may appeal on questions of law to the Supreme Court. (b) An order of the Board shall not automatically be stayed pending appeal. A stay must first be requested …

§ 1643. Enforcement (a) Orders of the Board issued under this chapter may be enforced by any party or by the Board by filing a petition with the Civil Division of the Superior Court of Washington County or in the Civil Division of the Superior Court in the county in which the act…

§ 1644. Antitrust exemption The activities of independent direct support providers and their exclusive representative that are necessary for the exercise of their rights under this chapter shall be afforded State action immunity under applicable federal and State antitrust laws. …

§ 1645. Automatic membership dues deduction Independent direct support providers who are members of the labor organization shall have the right to automatic membership dues deductions. Upon receipt of a signed authorization to commence automatic membership dues deductions from an…

§ 1646. Annual list of independent direct support providers in bargaining unit (a) Annually, or on a more frequent basis if mutually agreed to by the State and the exclusive representative, the State shall provide the exclusive representative of the independent direct support pro…

§ 1721. Purpose This chapter shall be known as the Vermont Municipal Employee Relations Act. It is the purpose and policy of this chapter to prescribe the legitimate rights of both municipal employees and municipal employers in their relations with each other; to provide orderly …

§ 1722. Definitions As used in this chapter: (1) “Agency service fee” means a fee deducted by an employer from the salary or wages of an employee who is not a member of an employee organization, which is paid to the employee organization that is the exclusive bargaining agent for…

§ 1723. Determination of the bargaining unit Nothing in this chapter shall prevent a municipal employer from voluntarily recognizing an employee organization as the exclusive bargaining agent. Voluntary recognition may be granted at the request of an employee organization if: (1)…