Provides super conciliation for certain emergency responder service employees, and requires continuation of contract provisions during negotiations.

S3538

SENATE, No. 3538

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

222nd LEGISLATURE

�

INTRODUCED FEBRUARY 19, 2026

Sponsored by:

Senator� LINDA R. GREENSTEIN

District 14 (Mercer and Middlesex)

SYNOPSIS

���� Provides super conciliation for certain emergency
responder service employees, and requires continuation of contract provisions
during negotiations.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

���� As introduced.

��

An Act

concerning super conciliation for certain
emergency responder service employees and supplementing P.L.1941, c.100
(C.34:13A-1 et seq.).

����
Be It
Enacted
by the Senate and General Assembly of
the State of New Jersey:

���� 1.��� As used in this act:

���� �Commission� means the New
Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission.

���� �Emergency responder service
employees�, or �employees� means emergency medical technicians, paramedics,
public safety dispatchers, 9-1-1 operators, and other public safety
telecommunicators.

���� �Employer� means the State of
New Jersey, any instrumentality of the State, or any of its counties,
municipalities, or other political subdivisions, which employs emergency
responder service employees which are included in a negotiating unit
exclusively comprised or one or more types of emergency responder service
employees.

���� 2.��� a.� In any case in which
collective negotiations between an employer and a majority representative of
emergency responder service employees have failed to result in the parties
reaching agreement on the terms of a negotiated agreement and the commission's
mediation and factfinding procedures have been exhausted with no final
agreement having been reached, the parties shall be required to utilize a super
conciliator, randomly selected from a list developed by the commission.� The
super conciliator shall utilize procedures, and be subject to qualifications,
established by the commission.� The super conciliator shall promptly schedule
proceedings to:

���� (1)�� Investigate and acquire
all relevant information regarding the failure to reach agreement;

���� (2)�� Discuss with the parties
their differences, and utilize means and mechanisms, including but not limited
to requiring 24-hour per day negotiations, until a voluntary settlement is
reached, and provide recommendations to resolve the parties� differences; and

���� (3)�� Institute any other
non-binding procedures deemed appropriate by the super conciliator.

���� The super conciliator shall
complete the proceedings not later than 90 days after the super conciliator is
selected.� If the actions taken by the super conciliator fail to resolve the
dispute, the super conciliator shall issue a final report not more than 30 days
after the completion of the proceedings, which shall be provided to the parties
promptly and made available to the public within 10 days after it issued.

���� b.��� The super conciliator,
while engaged in the proceedings, shall not be required to disclose any files,
records, reports, documents, or other papers classified as confidential which
are received or prepared by the super conciliator or to testify with regard to
those proceedings.� Nothing in this section shall exempt an individual from
disclosing information relating to the commission of a crime.

���� 3.��� Notwithstanding the
expiration of a collective negotiations agreement, an impasse in negotiations,
an exhaustion of the commission�s impasse procedures, or the utilization or
completion of the procedures required by section 2 of P.L.����� , c.�����
(C.����� ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) to resolve disputes
involving collective negotiations, and notwithstanding any law or regulation to
the contrary, no employer, its representatives, or its agents shall, with
respect to any collective negotiations agreement with the employer�s emergency
responder service employees, unilaterally impose, modify, amend, delete or
alter any terms and conditions of employment as set forth in the expired or
expiring collective negotiations agreement, or unilaterally impose, modify,
amend, delete, or alter any other negotiable terms and conditions of
employment, without the specific written agreement of the majority
representative of the employees.� Following contract expiration, and
notwithstanding any law or regulation to the contrary, absent express language
in a collective negotiations agreement providing that a specific term of the
agreement will not continue after the expiration of the collective negotiations
agreement, all terms and conditions of the agreement, including, but not
limited to, the payment of salary increments, shall remain in effect following
the agreement�s expiration until the parties reach agreement on a successor
collective negotiations agreement

���� 4.��� This act shall take
effect immediately and shall apply to all collective negotiations between
employers and majority representatives of emergency responder service
employees, except that, in the case of any collective negotiations agreement
between an employer and a majority representative of the employer�s emergency
responder service employees which is in effect on the effective date of the
act, the provisions of this act shall apply only upon the expiration of the
agreement.

STATEMENT

���� This bill provides, in certain
cases, super conciliation for emergency responder service employees, which the
bill defines emergency medical technicians, paramedics, public safety
dispatchers, 9-1-1 operators, and other public safety telecommunicators.� The
bill also requires the continuation of existing provisions of collective
negotiation agreements during negotiations.

���� In any case in which
collective negotiations between an employer and a majority representative of
the employees have failed to result in the parties reaching agreement, and
mediation and factfinding procedures of the Public Employment Relations
Commission have been exhausted without an final agreement, the parties shall be
required to utilize a super conciliator which shall promptly schedule
proceedings to:

���� 1.��� Investigate and acquire
all relevant information regarding the failure to reach agreement;

���� 2.��� Discuss with the parties
their differences, and utilize means and mechanisms, including but not limited
to requiring 24-hour per day negotiations, until a voluntary settlement is
reached, and provide recommendations to resolve the parties� differences; and

���� 3.��� Institute any other
non-binding procedures deemed appropriate by the super conciliator.

���� The super conciliator is
required to complete the proceedings not later than 90 day after the super
conciliator is selected.� If the actions taken by the super conciliator fail to
resolve the dispute, the super conciliator is required to issue a final report
not more than 30 days after the completion of the investigatory proceedings, to
be provided to the parties promptly and made available to the public within 10
days after it issued.