Four Republican lawmakers have joined the effort to prevent some academic staff in the University of Wisconsin System from being being reclassified as employees and, as a result, required to join labor unions.

Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, and Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester, will be introducing legislation in order to prevent the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission from holding job reclassification hearings, according to David Giroux, UW System spokesperson.

The hearings were requested by various unions that want WERC to reexamine the positions of more than 300 unclassified, academic staff at six UW institutions without the employees’ say in the matter, Giroux said in an e-mail to The Badger Herald.

He said classified employees automatically fall under the representation of various unions in the state of Wisconsin, whereas academic staff, unclassified employees, have the right to choose whether to join a labor union.

In December, the UW System Board of Regents and the Office of State Employment Relations filed a motion in the Dane County Circuit Court that would support the UW System academic staff’s right to choose whether to belong to labor unions.

The joint motion filed in December asked the court to order WERC, an agency that handles labor disputes, to discontinue any plans of holding job reclassification hearings.

“We think it is inappropriate to force people into this significant change,” Giroux said. “It removes any opportunity for choice.”

Giroux said the American Federation of Teachers filed three unit clarification petitions with WERC in 2009 on behalf of the Wisconsin Professional Employees Council, the Professional Employees in Research, Statistics and Analysis and the Wisconsin Physician and Dentist Association.

A fourth unit clarification was filed by the Wisconsin State Employees Union in 2009 as well, Giroux said. The four labor unions filed petitions with WERC because they believed some academic staff members were incorrectly labeled as such and should be considered classified employees.

Giroux said the board and the OSER do not believe WERC has the authority to reassign academic staff positions as classified employees.

WERC spokesperson Peter Davis said WERC has put all job reclassification proceedings on hold, but does not believe it was incorrect in moving forward with hearing proceedings.

Davis said a state law, the State Employment Labor Relations Act, already defines who is considered academic staff and who is not and, therefore, who automatically belongs to various labor unions.

“You are either covered by this law or you’re not,” Davis said. “It is not a choice that you have.”

He added WERC has the power to determine who is correctly qualified to be designated as academic staff.

Giroux said the legislation the lawmakers have proposed to draft would provide a permanent remedy to the situation and may bypass the necessity for a court appearance by the board, state and WERC.

“It depends on the timing of the legislation at this point,” Giroux said.