(A) An employee organization becomes the exclusive representative of all the public employees in an appropriate unit for the purposes of collective bargaining by either:

(1) Being certified by the state employment relations board when a majority of the voting employees in the unit select the employee organization as their representative in a board-conducted election under section 4117.07 of the Revised Code;

(2) Filing a request with a public employer with a copy to the state employment relations board for recognition as an exclusive representative. In the request for recognition, the employee organization shall describe the bargaining unit, shall allege that a majority of the employees in the bargaining unit wish to be represented by the employee organization, and shall support the request with substantial evidence based on, and in accordance with, rules prescribed by the board demonstrating that a majority of the employees in the bargaining unit wish to be represented by the employee organization. Immediately upon receipt of a request, the public employer shall either request an election under division (A)(2) of section 4117.07 of the Revised Code, or take the following action:

(a) Post notice in each facility at which employees in the proposed unit are employed, setting forth the description of the bargaining unit, the name of the employee organization requesting recognition, and the date of the request for recognition, and advising employees that objections to certification must be filed with the state employment relations board not later than the twenty-first day following the date of the request for recognition;

(b) Immediately notify the state employment relations board of the request for recognition.

The state employment relations board shall certify the employee organization filing the request for recognition on the twenty-second day following the filing of the request for recognition, unless by the twenty-first day following the filing of the request for recognition it receives:

(i) A petition for an election from the public employer pursuant to division (A)(2) of section 4117.07 of the Revised Code;

(ii) Substantial evidence based on, and in accordance with, rules prescribed by the board demonstrating that a majority of the employees in the described bargaining unit do not wish to be represented by the employee organization filing the request for recognition;

(iii) Substantial evidence based on, and in accordance with, rules prescribed by the board from another employee organization demonstrating that at least ten percent of the employees in the described bargaining unit wish to be represented by such other employee organization; or

(iv) Substantial evidence based on, and in accordance with, rules prescribed by the board indicating that the proposed unit is not an appropriate unit pursuant to section 4117.06 of the Revised Code.

(B) Nothing in this section shall be construed to permit a public employer to recognize, or the state employment relations board to certify, an employee organization as an exclusive representative under Chapter 4117. of the Revised Code if there is in effect a lawful written agreement, contract, or memorandum of understanding between the public employer and another employee organization which, on the effective date of this section, has been recognized by a public employer as the exclusive representative of the employees in a unit or which by tradition, custom, practice, election, or negotiation has been the only employee organization representing all employees in the unit; this restriction does not apply to that period of time covered by any agreement which exceeds three years. For the purposes of this section, extensions of agreement do not affect the expiration of the original agreement.

Effective Date: 04-01-1984 .

Note: The amendment to this section by 129th General AssemblyFile No.10, SB 5, §1 was rejected by voters in the November, 2011 election.