1. Each local government employer which has recognized one or more employee organizations shall determine, after consultation with the recognized organization or organizations, which group or groups of its employees constitute an appropriate unit or units for negotiating. The primary criterion for that determination must be the community of interest among the employees concerned.

2. A principal, assistant principal or other school administrator, school district administrator or central office administrator below the rank of superintendent, associate superintendent or assistant superintendent shall not be a member of the same bargaining unit with public school teachers unless the school district employs fewer than five principals but may join with other officials of the same specified ranks to negotiate as a separate bargaining unit.

3. A head of a department of a local government, an administrative employee or a supervisory employee must not be a member of the same bargaining unit as the employees under the direction of that department head, administrative employee or supervisory employee. Any dispute between the parties as to whether an employee is a supervisor must be submitted to the Board. An employee organization which is negotiating on behalf of two or more bargaining units consisting of firefighters or police officers, as defined in NRS 288.215, may select members of the units to negotiate jointly on behalf of each other, even if one of the units consists of supervisory employees and the other unit does not.

4. Confidential employees of the local government employer must be excluded from any bargaining unit but are entitled to participate in any plan to provide benefits for a group that is administered by the bargaining unit of which they would otherwise be a member.

5. If any employee organization is aggrieved by the determination of a bargaining unit, it may appeal to the Board. Subject to judicial review, the decision of the Board is binding upon the local government employer and employee organizations involved. The Board shall apply the same criterion as specified in subsection 1.

6. As used in this section:

(a) “Confidential employee” means an employee who is involved in the decisions of management affecting collective bargaining.

(b) “Supervisory employee” means a supervisory employee described in paragraph (a) of subsection 1 of NRS 288.138.

(Added to NRS by 1969, 1378; A 1971, 1504; 1975, 922; 1987, 1305, 2202; 1991, 703; 2005, 325; 2011, 2902; 2015, 1596; 2017, 1388; 2019, 2677)