Public sector collective bargaining bills up for debate in the General Assembly

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- Democrats in Virginia’s General Assembly are pushing to give most public sector workers the right to collectively bargain in the state.

“There’s about 150,000 state employees, and there's another 600,000 or so that work for local government,” Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-Fairfax) told 8News.

“We should not be forcing collective bargaining,” Senate Minority Leader Ryan McDougle (R-Hanover) said.

Public workers, with a few exceptions, can only collectively bargain if their locality or school board has approved it as of the time of reporting.

However, bills, including one originally written by Surovell, would give most public sector workers the right to collectively bargain no matter where they work.

“Workers need to have a voice, they need to have somebody to stand up and speak to them, to negotiate, to sort of frame up issues, and have conversations about workplace conditions, about wages, about benefits, about hours and all kinds of things,” Surovell explained.

However, Republicans like McDougle warn the measures could force localities to raise taxes to cover higher wages. According to the Commission on Local Government, “Localities estimated a negative fiscal impact of $50,000 to $403,968,900 over the biennium."

“Those costs have to be borne by somebody; they don’t just come out of thin air, and for localities, that means they have two choices: they can raise their real estate tax, or they can raise their car tax,” McDougle said.

However, Surovell said the measures won’t lead to higher taxes.

“Any agreement that comes out of any mediation or arbitration is subject to funding,” Surovell said. “If the government says we don’t have the money, then they have to go back to the drawing board and redraw the agreement.”

The two bills working their way through the legislative process do have some differences on who exactly can collectively bargain.

The Senate-passed version excludes home healthcare workers, while the House-passed version excludes higher education employees. The General Assembly will eventually have to reach a compromise.