Unions ask committee to let DLR review management titles to curb 'backdoor' reclassification

Representatives of the National Association of Government Employees and allied unions told the committee that state agencies have reclassified bargaining-unit positions as management titles to remove jobs from collective bargaining units.

Theresa McGoldrick, national executive vice president of NAGE, said the bill (H.2068/S.1306) would require the Division of Labor Relations to review management M1–M5 titles to determine whether positions should be in bargaining units. "This initiative is a critical tool that will help NAGE and all other public sector unions with similar work to protect their collective bargaining rights," she said.

Witnesses described a decades-long pattern in which positions previously in bargaining units were reposted as management as employees left, shrinking the unionized workforce. Testimony from union representatives explained that Chapter 150E’s statutory tests for "manager" were narrow — limited to significant participation in collective bargaining or policymaking — but that practice often uses a common-language definition of manager instead of the legal test.

One panelist described the historical ratio of managers to bargaining-unit employees as about 1:40 in the 1970s (fewer than 2,000 managers out of 80,000 employees) and said the ratio has shifted to about 1:10 as the bargaining-unit workforce declined and management titles increased. NAGE and other speakers said the Division of Labor Relations will not review a title that an employer labels "management," leaving unions without a remedy.

The proposed statutory change would direct DLR to review M1–M5 titles upon a union request and to determine whether the position meets the legal definition of manager under Chapter 150E, unless the union agrees the classification is accurate. Proponents said the change would restore due process for employees and strengthen collective-bargaining rights. The committee took testimony but did not vote.