Management Rights - AELE's Home Page

Workplace Rules and Practices 13-17
§ 13 SEXUAL HARASSMENT POLICY
The implementation of a new sexual harassment policy is a mandatory
subject of bargaining. 114 This is because it impacts upon the terms and
conditions of employment. 115 Therefore, despite the fact that a state law
requires municipalities to adopt some form of a sexual harassment policy,
the employer must still bargain over the impact of such policy if the union
makes a timely request.
When the Boston Police Department implemented a new sexual
harassment policy that included new reporting requirements for superior
officers, the LRC ruled that it should have offered the union notice and the
opportunity to bargain. 116
§ 14 SHIFT SWAPS
The ability and criteria for swapping shifts is a mandatory subject of
bargaining. In a case involving the Natick Fire Department's shift swap
policy for EMT's, the Commission ruled that the Town violated the Law by
failing to give the union prior notice or an opportunity to bargain about
restrictions on shift swaps. 117
In Natick, the Town argued that the ALJ erred in refusing to consider that
the Town's decision to maintain an EMT-I on every shift is a level of
services decision. The Town argued that the underlying intent of the
restriction on shift swaps was to ensure that the ambulance was capable
of administering advanced life support services on all shifts. The LRC
noted that decisions covering the level of services that a governmental
entity will provide lie within the exclusive prerogative of management, and
are not mandatory subjects of bargaining. 118 However, even if the decision
to maintain an EMT-I on every shift was within the Town's exclusive
prerogative, the Town was obligated to bargain over the impacts of that
decision, including whether EMT's would continue to be allowed to swap
shifts without regard to their certification. 119 Therefore, whether the
Town's bargaining obligation is considered as an obligation to bargain over
its decision to restrict shift swaps among EMT's or as an obligation to
bargain over the impacts of its decision to maintain an EMT-I on every
shift, the result is the same; the Town was obligated to give the Union
notice and an opportunity to bargain before changing its policy of allowing
EMT's to swap shifts without regard to their EMT certification.
Accordingly, even if the ALJ failed to consider the Town's argument that
the decision was a level of services decision, the Town was still obligated to
bargain even under the analysis it claimed the ALJ should have applied.
Massachusetts Municipal Police Training Committee