PA 54 of 2011 freezes wages and benefits during negotiations

Earlier this month the legislature passed and the Governor signed PA 54 of 2011, a law that freezes wage and benefit levels at the expiration of a collective bargaining agreement until a new agreement is put into place.

This new law would also require employees to pay any increased cost of maintaining benefits following the expiration of a collective bargaining agreement and would prohibit new collective bargaining agreements from retroactively increasing wage or benefit levels.

The idea behind this law was to incent a more efficient and expeditious bargaining process.

Samantha Harkins works for the Michigan Municipal League handling municipal services issues.  She can be reached at 517-908-0306 or email at sharkins@mml.org