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Benefits, Compensation and Leaves 16-7
officers who are specifically exempt from certain statutory protections
afforded to police officers, including collective bargaining agreements
under the Law. Further, the Town argued that, because the five (5)
student officers were not Town employees and bargaining unit members
on the dates they signed the fee waiver agreements, the Town had no
obligation to bargain about issues that impact persons who are not in the
Union's bargaining unit. The Commission disagreed.
Section 305 provides in relevant part that: "[u]pon completion of training,
said training fee shall be deducted from the recruit's wages in eighteen
equal monthly installments or as otherwise negotiated." Therefore, under
Section 305, the $1,800.00 training fee is due and payable after the
student officer has completed the police academy training or as otherwise
negotiated. After the student officers have completed the training, they
are no longer student officers, but police officers accorded the full
protections under the Law and whose wages and other terms and
conditions of continued employment are governed by the parties' collective
bargaining agreement. Therefore, the Law required the Town to bargain
with the Union about the training cost assessment, including the
procedures for implementing it, because the officers were Town police
officers and members of the Union's bargaining unit when the training
cost assessment attached. 48 Moreover, the fact that student officers
signed the fee waiver agreement prior to the date they started working for
the Town does not turn the training fee assessment under Section 305,
that directly and only affects employee's wages after hire, into a precondition
of hire that an applicant must fulfill before beginning work. 49
The Labor Relations Commission stated that its decision in Ludlow did not
require it to determine whether the Town required the student officers to
sign the fee waiver agreement or whether, as the Town asserted, the Town
offered the student officers the choice of either signing the fee waiver
agreements or reimbursing the Town in the manner identified in Section
305. Under either scenario, the outcome is the same. The Law requires
the Town to give the Union prior notice and an opportunity to bargain over
the new training cost assessment, including the procedures for
implementing it, like the fee waiver agreement, prior to implementation.
§ 7 BICYCLE PATROLS
The LRC has ruled that the manner in which a municipal employer
implements its bicycle patrol program directly affects mandatory subjects
of bargaining. 50 These include employees' job duties, workload and safety
when responding to calls, use of safety equipment, and work assignments,
all of which are mandatory subjects of bargaining. 51
Massachusetts Municipal Police Training Committee