SUBJECT |
DESCRIPTION |
STATUS |
CASE NAME |
Job Assignments |
City elected to have police officers enforce laws pertaining to school attendance and truancy. Decision non-negotiable as it implicated City’s ability to set its law enforcement priorities. |
Mixed. Decision not negotiable; impacts of decision negotiable. |
City of Worcester v. Labor Relations Commission, 799 N.E.2d 630 (Mass. 2002). |
Sick Leave |
Employer unilaterally discontinued longstanding practice of allowing employees to draw from accrued vacation leave credits for absences previously attributed to sick leave. Even though practice of “conversion of sick leave” was limited to employees on one shift, employer’s detailed tracking of conversions was sufficient to establish reasonable expectation that practice of allowing all unit members to make such conversions would continue. |
Mandatory. Employer required to rescind change in practice. |
New York State Correctional Officers Association, 35 NYPER ¶4541 (N.Y. PERB ALJ 2002). |
Subcontracting |
Employer unilaterally assigned latent fingerprint collection work to non-bargaining unit personnel. |
Mandatory. Employer required to rescind change in assignment. |
City of Boston, http://www.state.ma.us/lrc/Decisions/Recent/MUP-2267.pdf (Mass. LRC 2002). |
There are three categories of bargaining topics.
Mandatory. Mandatory subjects must be negotiated if either side raises them during the negotiations process. If a past practice concerns a mandatory subject of bargaining, an employer may not make a change in the practice without first bargaining with the labor organization unless the labor organization has waived its right to negotiate over the subject.
Permissive. Permissive subjects need not be negotiated by either party, but can be negotiated if both sides voluntarily choose to do so. An employer is free to make changes in past practices affecting permissive subjects of bargaining without first bargaining with a labor organization.
Prohibited. Prohibited subjects are excluded from bargaining. A subject is often prohibited if it is “preempted” by another law covering the subject (e.g., a state law might preempt bargaining over the entire subject of pension benefits).