Professional employe
Under the Pennsylvania School Code, a professional employe is an employe who has received tenure. Any temporary professional employe who is given a contract for the fourth year of employment and who has not been rated unsatisfactory during the last four months of the third year of employment must be given a contract as a professional employe as specified in §11-1108(b)(2) and (3) Once the status of professional employe is attained the employe never has to serve a second probationary period and retains the status of professional employe so long as employment is in one of the areas specified in §11-1101(1) or in an area judicially determined to be closely related to those areas. Professional employes are given statutory protection involving certain employment actions: dismissal, demotion and suspension. They can only be dismissed or suspended for causes stated in statutes. They must be given the procedural due process specified in statutes for demotion, dismissal and suspension. If an employee ceases to be employed by a school entity in one of those capacities specified in §11-1101(1) or judicially determined to be closely related, the employee loses the status of professional employe. Also, a professional employe who is hired as a substitute does not retain the emoluments of tenure in that position.
Under Act 195 of 1970 (P.L. 563), "The Public Employe Relations Act." (PERA), "professional employe" is defined in 43 PS §1101.301(7):
"Professional employe" means any employe whose work: (I) is predominantly intellectual and varied in character; (ii) requires consistent exercise of discretion and judgment; (iii) requires knowledge of an advanced nature in the field of science or learning customarily acquired by specialized study in an institution of higher learning or its equivalent; and (iv) is of such character that the output or result accomplished cannot be standardized in relation to a given period of time.
Under PERA, both professional employes (tenured) and temporary professional employes (untenured) would be professional employes and can be placed in the same collective bargaining unit.
School Code 24 PS §11-1101(1); §§11-1108(b)(2) and (3)