1. Appropriate unit means a group of employees designated as a single unit for the purpose of choosing an authorized representative to engage, in its behalf, in the meet and confer process.

2. Authorized representative means any employee organization which has been formally recognized by the public employer as representing a majority of the public employees of an appropriate unit, as defined herein, and is authorized to participate in the meet and confer process on behalf of an appropriate unit for the purpose of meeting and conferring on wages, hours and working conditions.

3. Charge means a written claim filed with the Phoenix Employment Relations Board alleging a violation of this ordinance.

4. Confidential employee means one whose responsibilities or knowledge in connection with the employee-management issues involved in meeting and conferring, grievance handling, or the content of union-management discussions would make his or her membership in a union incompatible with his or her official duties. Such individuals include staff employees reporting and accountable to those in management responsible for the conduct of union-management discussions, especially those relating to wage, hours or working conditions of union-represented employees, and any employee who assists and acts in a confidential capacity to a person who formulates, determines or effectuates labor-management policies.

5. Employee organization means any labor organization, union, association, fraternal order, or group, which represents or seeks to represent any public employee or group of public employees concerning wages, hours and working conditions.

6. Fact-finding means investigation of a dispute by an impartial third party resulting in recommendations for settlement.

7. Grievance means any dispute concerning the interpretation or application of a written memorandum of understanding. An impasse in meeting and conferring upon the terms of a proposed memorandum of understanding is not a grievance under the terms of this ordinance. In the absence of a mutually agreed upon procedure made a part of a finally approved memorandum of understanding, the revised Administrative Regulation 2.61 shall be the controlling procedure for resolving a grievance dispute.

8. Impasse means the failure of a designated representative of the public employer and a representative of an authorized employee organization to achieve agreement in the course of meeting and conferring.

9. Managerial employee means any employee involved in formulating, determining, or effectuating City or agency policies on behalf of the public employer, or any employee having a major role in employer-employee relations on behalf of the public employer, or any employee providing direct assistance in the foregoing functions.

10. Mediation means efforts by an impartial third party to assist in reconciling a dispute regarding wages, hours and working conditions between representatives of the public employer and the authorized representative through interpretation, suggestion and advice.

11. Meet and confer is the performance of the mutual obligation of the public employer through its chief administrative officer or his designee and the designees of the authorized representative to meet at reasonable times, including meetings in advance of the budget-making process; and to confer in good faith with respect to wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment or any question arising thereunder, and the execution of a written memorandum of understanding embodying all agreements reached, but such obligation does not compel either party to agree to a proposal or the making of a concession. Notwithstanding the date an employee representative is certified and notwithstanding the date of expiration of any memorandum of understanding, the meet and confer process shall be completed in all instances on all economic items prior to the date set by law for tentative adoption of the annual budget. The duty to meet and confer includes the duty to submit any agreement reached on these matters to the public employer for action pursuant to this ordinance.

12. Memorandum of understanding means a written memorandum of understanding arrived at by the representatives of the City and an authorized representative, which shall be presented to the City Council and to the membership of the authorized employee organization for appropriate action.

13. PERB means the Phoenix Employment Relations Board established pursuant to this ordinance. "Board" means PERB.

14. Professional employee includes any employee (a) whose work is predominantly intellectual and varied in character as opposed to routine mental, manual, mechanical, or physical work; involves the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment; requires knowledge of an advanced type in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by prolonged study in an institution of higher learning; or (b) attorneys at law or any other person who is registered as a qualified professional by a board of registration or other public body established for such purposes under the laws of Arizona.

15. Public employee means any person employed by the City of Phoenix excepting those persons classed as judicial, supervisory, or managerial employees; elected officials and appointive management officials; professional employees; temporary employees; and certain categories of confidential employees including those who have responsibility for administering the public employer-employee relations ordinance as a part of their official duties.

16. Public employer means the City of Phoenix, a municipal corporation, and its duly authorized officers and agents acting on behalf of the City of Phoenix.

17. Representative of the public employer means the City Manager or his designated representatives, managerial and supervisory employees acting on behalf of the public employer in the meet and confer process.

18. Strike means the failure by concerted action with others to report for duty, the concerted absence of employees from their positions, the concerted stoppage of work, mass picketing, or the concerted abstinence in whole or in part by any group of employees from the full, faithful, and proper performance of the duties of employment with a public employer, or the concerted engagement in a work action for the purpose of inducing, influencing, or coercing a change in wages, hours, or working conditions or terms of employment.

19. Supervisory employee means any employee having authority, in the interest of the public employer, to hire, transfer, suspend, layoff, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward or discipline other employees, or the responsibility to direct them in all major work aspects, or to adjust their grievances, or effectively to recommend such action, if in connection with the foregoing, the exercise of such authority is not of a merely routine or clerical nature, but requires the use of independent judgment. (Ord. No. G-1532, § 2; Ord. No. G-1754, § 1; Ord. No. G-2404, § 1; Ord. No. G-3303, § 3; Ord. No. G-4243, § 1, 2000)