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Pennsylvania House of Representatives
07/17/2024 09:25 AM
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?SPick=20230&chamber=H&cosponId=38659
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House of Representatives
Session of 2023 - 2024 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: December 14, 2022 10:37 AM
From: Representative David H. Rowe
To: All House members
Subject: Public Notice Prior to Signing Collective Bargaining Agreements
 
In the spirit of openness and transparency, I will be reintroducing legislation (former HB 845) to provide public notice of public employee collective bargaining agreements (prior to approval) and arbitration awards (after the final award is issued). Taxpayers have the right to know how their hard-earned money is being spent. Public employers across the commonwealth currently negotiate contracts costing billions of dollars without any public review or oversight.

My legislation will require any proposed public employee collective bargaining agreement or final arbitration award to be made available on the public employers’ publicly accessible Internet website.  The proposed agreement must be posted online two weeks prior and thirty days following the signing of the collective bargaining agreement. A final arbitration award would be posted within two business days after issuance. The posting shall include the following information:
  1. A statement of the terms of the proposed collective bargaining agreement/final arbitration award.
  2. An estimate of the costs to the public employer associated with the agreement/final arbitration award.
This legislation also establishes that proposed collective bargaining agreements, final arbitration awards, and documents/evidence from arbitration hearings will be subject to the Right-to-Know Law.

Taxpayers have a vested interest in the details of negotiations and arbitration between public employers and their collective bargaining units, because they will be paying the bill. The public should have the right to review proposed agreements before they are signed. Requiring an online posting of the proposed collective bargaining agreements and final arbitration awards is a straightforward reform to advance government transparency and ensure taxpayer money is spent effectively.