The Vermont Statutes Online

Title 21 : Labor

Chapter 019 : Vermont State Labor Relations Act

Subchapter 001 : GENERAL PROVISIONS

• § 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” means the process of negotiating terms, tenure, or conditions of employment between one or more employers and representatives of employees with the intent to arrive at an agreement that, when reached, shall be reduced to writing.

  (5) “Collective bargaining unit” means the employees of an employer being either all of the employees, the members of a craft, or the employees of a plant or subdivision thereof.

  (6) “Employee” includes any employee, and is not limited to the employees of a particular employer unless this chapter explicitly states otherwise, and includes any individual whose work has ceased as a consequence of, or in connection with, any current labor dispute or because of any unfair labor practice and who has not obtained any other regular and substantially equivalent employment, but does not include an individual:

  (A) employed as an agricultural laborer;

  (B) employed by the individual’s parent or spouse;

  (C) [Repealed.]

  (D) having the status of an independent contractor;

  (E) employed as a supervisor;

  (F) employed by an employer subject to the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. §§ 151–165; or

  (G) employed by any other person who is not an employer as defined in subdivision (7) of this section.

  (7) “Employer” means any person employing five or more employees and any person acting as an agent of an employer, employing five or more employees, directly or indirectly, but does not include:

  (A) the United States or any wholly owned government corporation or any federal reserve bank;

  (B) this State or any political subdivision of this State or any incorporated or interstate school district;

  (C) any person subject to the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. §§ 151–165;

  (D) any labor organization, other than when acting as an employer, or anyone acting in the capacity of officer or agent of a labor organization; or

  (E) a person operating a hospital or a nursing home, if no part of the net earnings inures to the benefit of a private individual or shareholder.

  (8) “Labor dispute” includes any controversy concerning terms, tenure, or conditions of employment, or concerning the association or representation of persons in negotiating, fixing, maintaining, changing, or seeking to arrange terms or conditions of employment, regardless of whether the disputants stand in the proximate relation of employer and employee.

  (9) “Labor organization” means an organization of any kind or any agency or any employee representation committee or plan in which employees participate and that exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with employees concerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, rates of pay, hours of employment, or conditions of work.

  (10) “Person” includes one or more individuals, labor organizations, partnerships, associations, corporations, legal representatives, trustees, trustees in bankruptcy, or receivers.

  (11) “Professional employee” means:

  (A) any employee engaged in work:

  (i) predominantly intellectual and varied in character as opposed to routine mental, manual, mechanical, or physical work;

  (ii) involving the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment in its performance;

  (iii) of such character that the output produced or the result accomplished cannot be standardized in relation to a given period of time; and

  (iv) requiring knowledge of an advanced type in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction and study in an institution of higher learning or a hospital, as distinguished from a general academic education or from an apprenticeship or from training in the performance of routine mental, manual, or physical processes; or

  (B) any employee who:

  (i) has completed the courses of specialized intellectual instruction and study described in subdivision (A)(iv) of this subdivision (11); and

  (ii) is performing related work under the supervision of a professional person to qualify to become a professional employee as defined in subdivision (A) of this subdivision (11).

  (12) “Representatives” includes any individual or labor organization.

  (13) “Supervisor” means an individual having authority, in the interest of the employer, to hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward, or discipline other employees or responsibly to direct them, or to adjust their grievances, or effectively to recommend such action, if the exercise of the authority is not of a merely routine or clerical nature but requires the use of independent judgment.

  (14) “Agency 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 the bargaining unit of the employee. An agency fee shall not exceed 85 percent of the amount payable as dues by members of the employee organization and shall be deducted in the same manner as dues are deducted from the salary or wages of members of the employee organization and shall be used to defray the costs of chargeable activities. (Added 1967, No. 198, § 2; amended 1967, No. 71, § 1; 1975, No. 152 (Adj. Sess.), § 5; 2005, No. 103 (Adj. Sess.), § 3, eff. April 5, 2006; 2013, No. 37, § 13, eff. June 30, 2013; 2017, No. 74, § 55; 2017, No. 113 (Adj. Sess.), § 149; 2023, No. 85 (Adj. Sess.), § 234, eff. July 1, 2024; 2023, No. 117 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. July 1, 2024.)