The Commission of Industrial Relations (CIR) is a Nebraska state agency designed to resolve public sector labor controversies with jurisdiction over state and local government employees.
The Bancroft-Rosalie School Board of Education passed a resolution at the February Board meeting urging the legislature to "produce a statutory solution to help minimize, reduce, or eliminate the influence of the CIR on the collective bargaining process of school employees. The board felt that in these tough economic times, the methods used to resolve contract disputes with public employees needs to take into account economic realities.
Currently, the CIR resolves disputes by looking at compensation of the teachers at the school district and comparing it to the compensation received by teachers at an array of similar schools. The school must provide compensation at or above the average of its "array". Which means that half of the schools will always be below the average, resulting in the need to raise their compensation which in turn raises the average. This guarantees a compensation increase every year.
The legislature is considering several bills that would impact the way the CIR works, including one to abolish the CIR altogether. It is likely that something will be done this spring.
