(A) The state employment relations board shall decide in each case the unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining. The determination is final and conclusive and not appealable to the court.

(B) The board shall determine the appropriateness of each bargaining unit and shall consider among other relevant factors: the desires of the employees; the community of interest; wages, hours, and other working conditions of the public employees; the effect of over-fragmentation; the efficiency of operations of the public employer; the administrative structure of the public employer; and the history of collective bargaining.

(C) The board may determine a unit to be the appropriate unit in a particular case, even though some other unit might also be appropriate.

(D) In addition, in determining the appropriate unit, the board shall not:

(1) Decide that any unit is appropriate if the unit includes both professional and nonprofessional employees, unless a majority of the professional employees and a majority of the nonprofessional employees first vote for inclusion in the unit;

(2) Include guards or correction officers at correctional or mental institutions, special police officers appointed in accordance with sections 5119.08 and 5123.13 of the Revised Code, psychiatric attendants employed at mental health forensic facilities, youth leaders employed at juvenile correction facilities, or any public employee employed as a guard to enforce against other employees rules to protect property of the employer or to protect the safety of persons on the employer's premises in a unit with other employees;

(3) Include members of a police or fire department or members of the state highway patrol in a unit with other classifications of public employees of the department;

(4) Designate as appropriate a bargaining unit that contains more than one institution of higher education; nor shall it within any such institution of higher education designate as appropriate a unit where such designation would be inconsistent with the accreditation standards or interpretations of such standards, governing such institution of higher education or any department, school, or college thereof. For the purposes of this division, any branch or regional campus of a public institution of higher education is part of that institution of higher education.

(5) Designate as appropriate a bargaining unit that contains employees within the jurisdiction of more than one elected county office holder, unless the county-elected office holder and the board of county commissioners agree to such other designation;

(6) With respect to members of a police department, designate as appropriate a unit that includes rank and file members of the department with members who are of the rank of sergeant or above;

(7) Except as otherwise provided by division (A)(3) of section 3314.10 or division (B) of section 3326.18 of the Revised Code, designate as appropriate a bargaining unit that contains employees from multiple community schools established under Chapter 3314. or multiple science, technology, engineering, and mathematics schools established under Chapter 3326. of the Revised Code. For purposes of this division, more than one unit may be designated within a single community school or science, technology, engineering, and mathematics school.

This section shall not be deemed to prohibit multiunit bargaining.

Amended by 130th General Assembly File No. 25, HB 59, §101.01, eff. 9/29/2013.

Effective Date: 06-30-1997; 2007 HB119 09-29-2007

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