Mission Statement

The Office of Labor Relations fosters high-performing labor-management relationships through the use of collaborative and interest-based methods that demonstrate the possibilities of effective labor-management partnership and confirm the value of the County's workforce.

Budget Overview

The total recommended FY27 Operating Budget for the Office of Labor Relations is $2,737,709, an increase of $214,589 or 8.50 percent from the FY26 Approved Budget of $2,523,120. Personnel Costs comprise 86.73 percent of the budget for 13 full-time position(s) and no part-time position(s), and a total of 13.00 FTEs. Total FTEs may include seasonal or temporary positions and may also reflect workforce charged to or from other departments or funds. Operating Expenses account for the remaining 13.27 percent of the FY27 budget.

County Priority Outcomes

While this program area supports all eight of the County Result Areas, the following is emphasized:

• Effective, Sustainable Government

Program Performance Measures

Performance measures for this department are included below (where applicable). The FY26 estimates reflect funding based on the FY26 approved budget. The FY27 and FY28 figures are performance targets based on the FY27 recommended budget and funding for comparable service levels in FY28.

Innovations and Productivity Improvements

• Implemented a centralization plan reassigning Countywide labor and employee relations functions to the Office of Labor Relations (OLR).
• Negotiated a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the Montgomery County Career Fire Fighters Association of the International Association of Fire Fighters, Local #1664 (IAFF) and the Municipal and County Government Employees Organization/United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1994 (MCGEO), and a new Direct Bargaining Agreement with Montgomery County Volunteer Fire Rescue Association (MCVFRA).
• Modified the County's collective bargaining issues development and strategy process for term bargaining in order to streamline and expedite the process.
• Continued to improve the Collective Bargaining Policy Committee to set County priorities ahead of term bargaining.
• Continued to improve OLR's intranet site to provide templates and resources to departments.
• Created and implemented multiple standard operating procedures to ensure that labor and employee relations issues are addressed timely and consistently.
• Developed and implemented multiple Countywide trainings on labor and employee relations subjects.
• Continued and completed Countywide Labor Management Relations Committee (LMRC) subcommittees on health and safety topics; department-level LMRCs in nearly every department in the County; and quarterly training for all LMRC members.
• Continued to improve grievance processing through the use of a new grievance tracker as well as software that allows OLR to track the status of all grievances in real time.
• Led term bargaining with the MCVFRA for the first time, rather than relying on an outside contractor.
• Conducted onsite visits to County worksites to better understand operational challenges and working conditions.

Program Descriptions

  Labor Relations

OLR administers the County's labor and employee relations programs. These include conducting collective bargaining with the three County unions and volunteer Firefighters; administering and ensuring compliance with CBAs and other labor-management agreements and personnel regulations; managing collaborative labor-management programs and joint initiatives, including LMRCs and other joint committees; administering grievance...