§ 1734. Miscellaneous
(a) Municipal employees and exclusive bargaining agents are authorized to negotiate provisions in a collective bargaining agreement calling for:
(1) Payroll deduction of employee organization dues and initiation fees.
(2) Binding arbitration of grievances involving the interpretation or application of a written collective bargaining agreement. The cost of arbitration shall be shared equally by the parties.
(b) In the event of a voluntary submission to binding arbitration by a municipal employer and an employee organization of a grievance or controversy concerning the tenure of employment of any employee, whether or not pursuant to the provisions of a collective bargaining agreement, binding arbitration shall be the exclusive procedure for determining such grievance or controversy, notwithstanding any contrary provision of any general statute, charter, special act, court decision, or ordinance.
(c) Any individual employee or group of employees shall have the right at any time to present grievances to their employer and to have such grievances adjusted, without the intervention of the exclusive bargaining agent, as long as the adjustment is not inconsistent with the terms of a collective bargaining agreement and provided that the exclusive bargaining agent has been given an opportunity to be present at such adjustment.
(d) In the absence of an agreement requiring an employee to be a member of the employee organization, an employee choosing not to be a member of the employee organization shall pay the agency service fee in the same manner as employees who choose to join the employee organization pay dues. The employee organization shall indemnify and hold the employer harmless from any and all claims stemming from the implementation or administration of the agency service fee. (Added 1973, No. 111, § 1; amended 2013, No. 37, § 18, eff. June 30, 2013.)