§ 217. Proceeding against body or officer; actions complaining about
conduct that would constitute a union's breach of its duty of fair
representation; four months. 1. Unless a shorter time is provided in
the law authorizing the proceeding, a proceeding against a body or
officer must be commenced within four months after the determination to
be reviewed becomes final and binding upon the petitioner or the person
whom he represents in law or in fact, or after the respondent's refusal,
upon the demand of the petitioner or the person whom he represents, to
perform its duty; or with leave of the court where the petitioner or the
person whom he represents, at the time such determination became final
and binding upon him or at the time of such refusal, was under a
disability specified in section 208, within two years after such time.

2. (a) Any action or proceeding against an employee organization
subject to article fourteen of the civil service law or article twenty
of the labor law which complains that such employee organization has
breached its duty of fair representation regarding someone to whom such
employee organization has a duty shall be commenced within four months
of the date the employee or former employee knew or should have known
that the breach has occurred, or within four months of the date the
employee or former employee suffers actual harm, whichever is later.

(b) Any action or proceeding by an employee or former employee against
an employer subject to article fourteen of the civil service law or
article twenty of the labor law, an essential element of which is that
an employee organization breached its duty of fair representation to the
person making the complaint, shall be commenced within four months of
the date the employee or former employee knew or should have known that
the breach has occurred, or within four months of the date the employee
or former employee suffers actual harm, whichever is later.