(a) The protection of the public health, safety, and welfare demands that the permanent uniformed members, rescue service personnel of any city or town, emergency medical services personnel of any city or town, and all employees of any paid fire department in any city or town not be accorded the right to strike or engage in any work stoppage or slowdown. This necessary prohibition does not, however, require the denial to these municipal employees of other well recognized rights of labor such as the right to organize, to be represented by a labor organization of their choice, and the right to bargain collectively concerning wages, rates of pay, and other terms and conditions of employment.
(b) It is declared to be the public policy of this state to accord to the permanent uniformed members, rescue service personnel of any city or town, emergency medical services personnel of any city or town, and all employees of any paid fire department in any city or town all of the rights of labor other than the right to strike or engage in any work stoppage or slowdown. To provide for the exercise of these rights, a method of arbitration of disputes is established.
(c) The establishment of this method of arbitration shall not, in any way be deemed to be a recognition by the state of compulsory arbitration as a superior method of settling labor disputes between employees who possess the right to strike and their employers, but rather is solely a recognition of the necessity to provide some alternative mode of settling disputes where employees must, as a matter of public policy, be denied the usual right to strike.
History of Section.
P.L. 1961, ch. 149, § 1; P.L. 1976, ch. 74, § 1; P.L. 1986, ch. 69, § 1.