Bargaining Update

SUBJECT	DESCRIPTION	STATUS	CASE NAME
Holidays	Proposal that holiday pay be included in base salary. Matter negotiable since it concerned wages; issue of whether holiday pay was pensionable to be decided by pension system.	Mandatory. Employer required to bargain over issue.	County of Passaic, 29 NJPER ¶91 (N.J. PERC 2003).
Safety	Arbitrator awarded Union’s proposal that a joint health and safety committee had the ability to make decisions relating to the safety of personal firefighter equipment and apparel and to safe working conditions. While safety issues are mandatory for bargaining, a process which vested a joint management-labor committee with the ability to make binding decisions not reviewable by the courts created a non-negotiable process in violation of the obligation to bargain in good faith.	Not Mandatory. Arbitrator’s opinion overturned.	City of Detroit v. Detroit Firefighters Association, 2004 WL 513663 (Mich.App. 2004).
Subcontracting	Employer unilaterally transferred court liaison duties to non-unit civilian personnel. Even though non-unit employees had performed duties 13 years ago, police officers had consistently performed the work for last 13 years.	Mandatory. Employer required to rescind transfer.	City of Allentown, 34 PPER ¶90 (Pa. LRB 2003).

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).