Management Rights - AELE's Home Page

Reorganization 9-5
bargaining unit work, even accompanied by no apparent reduction in
bargaining unit positions, constitutes a detriment to the bargaining unit
(in the LRC’s eyes, at least) because it could result in an eventual
elimination of the bargaining unit through a gradual erosion of bargaining
unit opportunities. 41 This is what happened in Hanson where the
employer created a librarian position and transferred bargaining unit
duties to that position. 42 The town failed to provide notice and
opportunity to bargain in violation of the law.
The union is entitled to request bargaining in an attempt to change the
status quo. 43 A community is not required to cease the past practice of
employing civilian dispatchers; however, unless it has a "zipper clause" in
its collective bargaining agreement, it is required to make itself available to
negotiate the topic on demand. The fact that a union has not objected to a
practice for several years does not eliminate its right, at some later date, to
request bargaining on that practice. 44
In a case also involving civilian dispatchers, the Town of Dartmouth was
held to have violated the law when it laid off civilian dispatchers and
assigned the dispatching work to the police officer bargaining unit. 45 This
was not a shared work situation and the complete reassignment of all
bargaining unit work was found to constitute a substantial detriment.
The Commission dismissed a complaint in a shared work situation
involving the abolition of the position of Automobile Investigator and the
reassignment of those duties to detectives. The decision was based
primarily on the fact that the reassignment of duties resulted from a
union-initiated representation petition which split-off the detectives in a
"professional" bargaining unit from the police officers. 46 Similarly, a
charge was dismissed where the Massachusetts Rehabilitation
Commission had a long history of purchasing services similar to those
provided by its vocational rehabilitation counselors. 47
PRACTICE POINTERS
Municipalities contemplating replacing public safety personnel with civilian
dispatchers (or other "civilianization" changes) should provide clear
notification to the exclusive bargaining representative (union) of all affected
bargaining units months in advance of any anticipated conversion date,
except in an emergency. An exception may be found in a shared work
situation where desk or dispatcher duties were not performed exclusively
by members of only one bargaining unit unless the union can demonstrate
the exact percentage of work their members performed or show a clear
pattern of assigning the work to bargaining unit members.
Massachusetts Municipal Police Training Committee