Bargaining Update

SUBJECT	DESCRIPTION	STATUS	CASE NAME
Ammunition	Union proposal that employer provide 60 rounds of reload ammunition per month. Held to be mandatorily negotiable because of the employee interest in having the employer supply and pay for ammunition necessary to maintain weapons training and certification.	Mandatory. Employer required to bargain over issue.	Town of West Milford, 30 NJPER ¶77 (N.J. PERC 2004).
Education	City changed its past practice to require that sergeants have an associate degree in criminal justice or a closely-related field, and changed method of calculating “life experience” credits towards the educational requirement. City required to bargain over impacts of the change.	Mandatory. Employer required to rescind change in past practice.	Beaverton Police Association v. City of Beaverton, 194 Or.App. 531 (Or.App. 2004).
Grievances	City Council’s use of a consultant to review and recommend what action to take in response to grievances is a matter of managerial prerogative that is not negotiable.	Not Mandatory. Employer allowed to continue to use consultant.	City of Pittsburg, Decision 1563-M (Cal. PERB 2004).
Promotions	While employer allowed the prerogative to set promotional criteria and to apply those criteria to its final promotional decisions, it was required to bargain over the order in which it would administer the components of the promotional system and whether to have the results of the written portion of the examination withheld until all other aspects of the promotional process were completed.	Mandatory. Employer required to rescind change in policy.	Town of Piscataway, 30 NJPER ¶57 (N.J. PERC 2004).
Subcontracting	City implemented a policy to temporarily hire retirees in order to remedy a short-term staffing shortage in its Police Department. The Court concluded that to require bargaining over the issue would inappropriately intrude “into the City’s management prerogatives of responding expeditiously to a labor market shortage in a department affecting the public safety.”	Not Mandatory. Employer allowed to maintain policy.	Sacramento Police Officers’ Association v. City of Sacramento, 28 PERC ¶104 (Cal.App. 2004).

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).