Union Certification Election Under Florida Law: Petition and Ballot

A Florida union certification election is a secret-ballot vote run by the Public Employees Relations Commission (PERC) that decides whether a group of public employees will be represented by a specific employee organization. To get to that vote, the union has to register with PERC, define a bargaining unit, collect signed authorization cards from at least 30 percent of the employees in that unit, and clear a PERC investigation and hearing. A majority of valid votes cast wins certification.¹

Who Can Be Organized

Chapter 447 covers employees of the state, counties, municipalities, school districts, and special districts, and gives them the right to form, join, or refuse to join an employee organization.² Florida is a right-to-work state, and the membership authorization form each employee signs has to say so prominently.

Several categories are carved out of the definition of “public employee” and cannot be included in a bargaining unit:³

Elected officials, gubernatorial appointees, agency heads, and board members.
Managerial employees, meaning those who formulate policies affecting bargaining-unit workers, help prepare for or administer collective bargaining, or play a significant role in personnel or budgeting. Police chiefs, fire chiefs, and public safety directors are automatically managerial.
Confidential employees who act in a confidential capacity to officials formulating labor-relations policy.
Employees of the Florida Legislature and of PERC itself.
Organized militia members, inmates, part-time undergraduates working for their state university, and workers in certain federally licensed fruit-and-vegetable inspection positions.

The managerial exclusion drives most eligibility fights. PERC looks at the actual duties a person performs, not the job title. A supervisor who assists with bargaining preparation or has a real hand in employee relations will be excluded even if the title sounds ordinary.³

Defining the Bargaining Unit

Before collecting any signatures, organizers have to describe the group of employees who will be voting. PERC evaluates whether the proposed group shares a “community of interest”: similar wages, hours, working conditions, supervision, and duties. A petition that bundles workers with little in common gets rejected or redrawn.

The petition must list every job title included and every title excluded. If PERC redraws the unit at the hearing stage, the 30-percent showing of interest is recalculated against the new unit. A campaign that had comfortable support on paper can suddenly fall short.

Registering the Union With PERC

An employee organization cannot request recognition, file for an election, or appear on a ballot until it is registered with PERC. Registration requires a sworn application listing officers and representatives, the initiation fees and dues, a current financial statement prepared by an independent CPA, copies of the organization’s constitution and bylaws (including any parent body), and a pledge to follow Florida law and admit members without regard to age, race, sex, religion, or national origin.⁴

Registration lasts one year and has to be renewed annually. Each renewal requires updated financials showing assets, liabilities, receipts, disbursements by category, and compensation paid to every officer or employee who received more than $10,000 during the fiscal year. An unregistered organization cannot participate in a representation election or keep a certification it already holds.⁴

The 30 Percent Showing of Interest

A certification petition must arrive with dated, signed statements from at least 30 percent of the employees in the proposed bargaining unit saying they want the petitioning organization to represent them.¹ These are typically authorization cards. Each card must be personally signed and dated by the employee. An “X” signature counts only with a witness present. Undated cards and cards signed by someone other than the employee are thrown out.

Cards should be recent enough to reflect current sentiment. Signatures more than about 12 months old are generally not accepted by PERC, so a drawn-out campaign risks losing support on paper even if workers still want representation.

If a second union wants on the ballot, it can intervene by filing its own motion with signed statements from at least 10 percent of the unit.¹ The signed statements are confidential and exempt from Florida’s public-records law, but any employee, employer, or employee organization that believes signatures were obtained through coercion, intimidation, or misrepresentation can ask for a chance to verify and challenge them.

Filing the Petition

The formal filing is a Representation-Certification Petition, PERC Form 4. It has to describe the proposed unit (every included and excluded title), name the public employer, estimate the number of employees, and identify the petitioning organization. The authorization cards are filed with the petition but are not shared with the employer. The petition itself, however, must be served on the employer at the time of filing.¹

Once PERC receives a valid petition, the employer is notified and has 15 calendar days to provide an alphabetized list of all employees in the proposed unit. PERC uses that list to verify that the 30-percent threshold is met.

PERC Investigation and Hearing

PERC or a designated agent investigates the petition for sufficiency. If the commission finds reasonable cause to believe the requirements are met, it schedules a hearing. If the petition falls short, PERC can dismiss it.¹

At the hearing, PERC decides three things: the appropriate scope of the bargaining unit (which may differ from what the petition proposed), which employees are eligible to vote, and the identity of the public employer for bargaining purposes. The hearing can be conducted by a PERC agent rather than the full commission. Once PERC finds the petition sufficient on the record, it orders a secret-ballot election.

The Secret-Ballot Election

PERC agents run the vote. The ballot asks employees whether they want the petitioning organization to represent them. Votes are tallied with observers from both the employer and the union present. A union that wins a majority of the valid votes cast is certified as the exclusive bargaining representative for everyone in the unit, whether they voted for the union or not.

If more than one union is on the ballot and no choice gets a majority, PERC orders a runoff between the top two. Election costs are split equally between the parties unless PERC’s rules provide otherwise, and that includes any runoff.¹

Certification takes effect when PERC issues its final order. If the order is appealed, it becomes effective once the appeal is exhausted or any stay is lifted.

Campaign Conduct

Both sides can express opinions during the campaign. Expressing arguments or views is not an unfair labor practice and cannot be used as evidence of one, so long as the speech contains no promise of benefits or threat of reprisal.⁵ An employer can tell workers it opposes unionization. It cannot tell them they will lose their jobs if they vote yes. That is the line where most campaign disputes land.

Employers are separately prohibited from interfering with, restraining, or coercing employees exercising their organizing rights, from discriminating in hiring or tenure to encourage or discourage membership, and from dominating or financially supporting an employee organization.⁵ Unions face parallel restrictions on coercing employees or trying to cause an employer to discriminate based on union membership.

When Petitions Cannot Be Filed

Florida law imposes two timing locks that keep petitions off PERC’s docket during protected periods.

The 12-Month Election Bar

No petition for a new election can be filed covering any of the same employees within 12 months after PERC’s order verifying a prior election. If a union won, the bar runs 12 months from the effective date of certification.¹ This gives a newly certified union room to negotiate a first contract without an immediate challenge.

The Contract Bar and Window Period

When a collective bargaining agreement is in effect, a certification or decertification petition can only be filed during a narrow window between 150 and 90 days before the contract expires. Petitions can also be filed after the contract expires but before a new one takes effect. Outside that window, the existing contract blocks any election challenge.¹

What Certification Actually Gets You

Once PERC certifies the union, the bargaining agent and the chief executive of the public employer are required to bargain collectively over wages, hours, and terms and conditions of employment. Both sides must meet at reasonable times and bargain in good faith, and the chief executive has to consult with and try to represent the views of the employer’s legislative body during negotiations.⁶

Certification does not guarantee a contract. It gives the union a seat at the table and a legal obligation on both sides to negotiate genuinely. If either refuses to bargain in good faith, the other can file an unfair labor practice charge with PERC.

Keeping Certification: The 60 Percent Rule

A 2023 law (SB 256) added a membership test that can end a certification without any election challenge. When a certified bargaining agent’s dues-paying membership falls below 60 percent of the eligible employees in the unit, the organization must petition PERC for recertification within 30 days of applying for its annual registration renewal. If it fails to file, PERC revokes the certification.⁴

For unions representing instructional personnel such as teachers, the trigger is 50 percent rather than 60.⁷ Certain units are exempt from the recertification requirement altogether: law enforcement officers, correctional officers, correctional probation officers, and firefighters.⁴ The 2025 version of the statute also extends the exemption to 911 public safety telecommunicators, emergency medical technicians, and paramedics.²

Each registration renewal must include independently verified figures for the number of eligible employees in each certified unit, the number who have submitted membership authorizations, the number who paid dues, and the number who did not. An incomplete renewal gets dismissed if the missing information is not supplied within 10 days of PERC’s notice.⁴ For a union operating near the threshold, that annual disclosure puts the certification on the line every year.

1
Florida Senate. Florida Code 447.307 – Certification of Bargaining Agent Procedure
2
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 447.301 – Public Employees Rights Organization and Representation
3
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 447.203 – Definitions
4
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 447.305 – Registration of Employee Organizations
5
Florida Senate. Florida Code Chapter 447 – Labor Organizations
6
Florida Senate. Florida Code 447.309 – Collective Bargaining Scope
7
Florida Senate. Florida SB 256 – Enrolled