State Employment Relations Board

The State Employment Relations Board (SERB) administers the Ohio Public Employees’ Collective Bargaining Act through a three-member Board, appointed by the Governor, and a staff of 28. SERB’s key statutory functions include: Investigating unfair labor practice (ULP) charges, adjudicating the merits of ULP complaints after investigation, processing representation petitions and requests for recognition, determining appropriate bargaining units and conducting secret ballot representation elections, determining fair share fee rebate challenges, analyzing and reporting wage and benefit data from collective bargaining agreements, providing impasse resolution services through mediation fact-finding and conciliation, resolving disputes as to the legality of strikes, collecting and monitoring registration and financial filings by employee organizations, and training representatives of labor and management in the methods and rules of collective bargaining.