Florida Statutes
Fla. Stat. § 447.401 (2025)
Grievance procedures.
✓ 2025 Florida Statutes — current through the 2025 Regular Session
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447.401 Grievance procedures.—Each public employer and bargaining agent shall negotiate a grievance procedure to be used for the settlement of disputes between employer and employee, or group of employees, involving the interpretation or application of a collective bargaining agreement. Such grievance procedure shall have as its terminal step a final and binding disposition by an impartial neutral, mutually selected by the parties; however, when the issue under appeal is an allegation of abuse, abandonment, or neglect by an employee under s. 39.201 or s. 415.1034, the grievance may not be decided until the abuse, abandonment, or neglect of a child has been judicially determined. However, an arbiter or other neutral shall not have the power to add to, subtract from, modify, or alter the terms of a collective bargaining agreement. If an employee organization is certified as the bargaining agent of a unit, the grievance procedure then in existence may be the subject of collective bargaining, and any agreement which is reached shall supersede the previously existing procedure. All public employees shall have the right to a fair and equitable grievance procedure administered without regard to membership or nonmembership in any organization, except that certified employee organizations shall not be required to process grievances for employees who are not members of the organization. A career service employee shall have the option of utilizing the civil service appeal procedure, an unfair labor practice procedure, or a grievance procedure established under this section, but such employee is precluded from availing himself or herself to more than one of these procedures.
History.—s. 3, ch. 74-100; s. 1, ch. 74-378; s. 14, ch. 77-343; s. 38, ch. 87-238; s. 12, ch. 88-290; s. 32, ch. 91-57; s. 135, ch. 95-418; s. 156, ch. 97-103; s. 154, ch. 98-403; s. 101, ch. 2000-349.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 41
cases (3 in the last 5 years), 1978–2025 · leading case: City of Casselberry v. ORANGE CTY. POLICE, 482 So. 2d 336 (Fla. 1986).
City of Casselberry v. ORANGE CTY. POLICE, 482 So. 2d 336 (Fla. 1986). “PERC stated that, while the PBA might have believed that section 447.401, Florida Statutes (1981), required every contract to contain a discharge and demotion provision, the statute did not in fact specifically compel the inclusion of such a term.”
Depaola v. Town of Davie, 872 So. 2d 377 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004). “" § 447.401, Fla. Stat. (emphasis added). This court has clarified that, "where the parties collective bargaining agreement reserves to the certified bargaining agent the exclusive right to submit grievances to arbitration, a public employer is not obligated to process an…”
City of Miami v. Fop, Miami Lodge 20, 511 So. 2d 549 (Fla. 1987). “PERC also views the arbitration policy enumerated throughout Chapter 447, Part II, as a "legislatively adopted counterbalancing factor to the constitutional prohibition against public employees' strikes.”
City of Jacksonville, Jso v. Cowen, 973 So. 2d 503 (Fla. 1st DCA 2007). “§ 447.401, Fla. Stat. (2003). Similarly, Jacksonville's civil service rules provide: Once the employee has selected a forum for his/her appeal to, be heard, he/she is bound by that decision and cannot seek to have it reheard in another forum.”
Galbreath v. Sch. Bd. of Broward Cnty., 446 So. 2d 1045 (Fla. 1984). “The district court affirmed the dismissal, holding that Galbreath could be foreclosed from individual arbitration under section 447.401, Florida Statutes (1979).”
City of Miami v. Miami Lodge 20, Fraternal Order of Police, 247 So. 3d 618 (Fla. 3d DCA 2018). “Because we find that PERC’s interpretation is in conflict with the plain and clear language of section 447.401, Florida Statutes (2016), we afford PERC’s interpretation no deference.”
City of Clearwater (Fire Dept.) v. Lewis, 404 So. 2d 1156 (Fla. 2d DCA 1981). “§ 447.401, Fla. Stat. (1979); see generally Leon County CTA v.”
Bass v. Dep't of Transp., 516 So. 2d 972 (Fla. 1st DCA 1987). “Because of the procedural history of this case, and because of the provisions of § 447.401, Fla. Stat., we are unable to address the merits of Mr.”
Ison v. Zimmerman, 372 So. 2d 431 (Fla. 1979). “In addition, appellant alleged that he was a "public employee" as defined by chapter 447, Florida Statutes (1976), and entitled as such to a fair and equitable grievance procedure under section 447.401, Florida Statutes (1976), to determine whether proper cause existed for his…”
ORANGE CTY. POL. BENEV. v. City of Casselberry, 457 So. 2d 1125 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984). “From the inception, and throughout the period of negotiations, PBA contended that the contract's "grievance procedure culminating in binding arbitration," a provision required by Section 447.401, Florida Statutes (1981), [3] should include *1127 disputes involving discharge or…”
City of West Palm Beach v. PALM BEACH CTY., 387 So. 2d 533 (Fla. 4th DCA 1980). “§ 447.401 Fla. Stat. (1979). Nor do we find any conflict with the Florida Arbitration Code.”
Am. Fed'n of State, Cnty. & Mun. Employees, Local 1363 v. Florida Pub. Employees Relations Comm'n, 430 So. 2d 481 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983). “Local 1363 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (Local 1363) appeals the final order of the Public Employees Relations Commission (PERC) which held that the collective bargaining agreement between Local 1363 and Metropolitan Dade County does not…”
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