Section 124.673 - Employee rights; collective bargaining; labor agreements; pension or retirement system(1) A public employee whose duties are transferred to a council established under this act shall be given a position of a comparable description with the council, and shall retain the seniority status and benefit rights of the public employment position held before the transfer. An employee of a council is a "public employee" as defined in section 1 of 1947 PA 336, MCL 423.201.(2) A council described in this act may bargain collectively and enter into agreements with labor organizations pursuant to 1947 PA 336, MCL 423.201 to 423.217. When powers or duties of a local governmental unit are transferred to a council, the council shall immediately assume and be bound by an existing labor agreement applicable to those powers or duties for the remainder of the term of the labor agreement. The members and beneficiaries of a pension or retirement system or other benefits established by a local governmental unit, the powers or duties of which are transferred to a council, shall have the same rights, privileges, benefits, obligations, and status with respect to the council. A representative of the employees or a group of employees in a local governmental unit who represents or is entitled to represent the employees or a group of employees of the local governmental unit, pursuant to 1947 PA 336, MCL 423.201 to 423.217, shall continue to represent the employee or group of employees after the employees are transferred to a council. This subsection does not limit the rights of employees, pursuant to applicable law, to assert that a bargaining representative protected by this subsection is no longer their representative.(3) An employee who left the employ of a local governmental unit to enter the military service of the United States shall have the same employment rights as to a council established under this act as that employee would have had with the local governmental unit pursuant to 1951 PA 263, MCL 35.351 to 35.356.(4) An employee of a council established under this act who performs a service in the jurisdiction of a local governmental unit that withdraws from the council pursuant to section 33 shall be protected in relation to the local governmental unit to the same extent as an employee of a participating local governmental unit is protected in relation to a council under this section.1989, Act 292, Imd. Eff. 1/3/1990 ;--Am. 1998, Act 373, Imd. Eff. 10/20/1998.