After a union is certified, the public body and union representatives must start bargaining within eight weeks, and the union must show majority ratification before presenting an agreement.
*105.580. Bargaining agreement, procedure — renewal — term of agreement, limitation. — 1. Within eight weeks after a labor organization is certified as the exclusive bargaining representative for the public employees in a bargaining unit as described in section 105.575, representatives of the public body, designated by the public body, and representatives of the labor organization, selected by the labor organization, shall meet and begin bargaining for an agreement covering the wages, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment for the public employees within the bargaining unit. 2. No labor organization may refuse to meet with designated representatives of any public body or engage in conduct intended to cause the removal or replacement of any designated representative by the public body. 3. The labor organization and the public body shall engage in bargaining with each other's designated representatives, but neither side shall be required to offer any particular concession or withdraw any particular proposal. 4. The public body shall not pay any labor organization representative or employee for time spent participating in collective bargaining or preparing for collective bargaining on behalf of a labor organization, except to the extent the person in question is an employee of the public body and elects to use accrued paid time off that was personally accrued by such person to cover the time so spent. 5. Before any proposed agreement or memorandum of understanding is presented to a public body, the labor organization, as a condition of its presentation, shall establish that it has been ratified by a majority of its members. The public body may approve the entire agreement or any part thereof. If the public body rejects any portion of the agreement, the public body may return any rejected portion of the agreement to the parties for further bargaining, adopt a replacement provision of its own design, or state that no provision covering the topic in question shall be adopted. Any tentative agreement reached between the parties' representatives shall not be binding on the public body or labor organization. 6. A public body and a labor organization shall not be subject to binding mediation, binding interest arbitration, or interest arbitration in the event the parties are unable to reach an agreement. 7. After the first agreement between the public body and the labor organization is adopted, bargaining for renewal agreements shall take place triennially. Such bargaining shall be completed within thirty days of the end of the public body's fiscal year. The parties may elect to bargain noneconomic terms for longer periods, but all economic provisions of the agreement shall be adopted on a triennial basis only. 8. The term of any labor agreement, provision of a labor agreement, or extension of a labor agreement entered into after August 28, 2018, shall not exceed a period of three years. Any modification, extension, renewal, or any change whatsoever to a labor agreement in effect as of August 28, 2018, shall be considered a new labor agreement for purposes of this section. (L. 2018 H.B. 1413) *Revisor's Note: On June 1, 2021, this section was declared unconstitutional in Missouri National Education Association v. Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, 623 S.W.3d 585 (Mo.banc). (2021) House Bill 1413 enacting section in 2018 held invalid as violation of equal protection clause of Article I, Section 2 of state constitution; section as enacted could not be severed from rest of bill. Missouri National Education Association v. Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, 623 S.W.3d 585 (Mo.banc).