COVID-19 Vaccinations and the Workplace
EEOC guidance on mandatory vaccine programs in the workplace
CERB: City Required To Bargain Over Decision and Impact Of New Food Restrictions
You may recall from our June 2019 Advisor, that the Department of Labor Relations (DLR) in City of Boston, 45 MLC 126 (2019), issued a hearing officer decision that determined that the City’s new food guidelines for its operations room were not mandatory subjects of bargaining as they resulted in a mere inconvenience to employees. [...]
No Duty To Bargain Where Impacts Of Food Restrictions Are De Minimus
The Department of Labor Relations (DLR) got it right in finding no bargaining obligations where an employer sought to maintain cleanliness at the workplace. In City of Boston, 45 MLC 126 (March 15, 2019), the City implemented new food guidelines in the operations room without prior notice to the Union. The Union filed a charge [...]
Win Some, Lose Some Before DLR On Scope Of Bargaining Issues
Can a firefighter call in “sick” while on vacation, and thus preserve another vacation day? What if there is medical documentation? Veteran readers might wonder, what is the parties’ practice? And if the “practice” is that a grand total of two firefighters had done this – in 1992, but not before or since – that [...]
Labor Board Recognizes “New” Working Condition
The Department of Labor Relations (DLR) recently issued a ruling that the City of Springfield could not install GPS devices in city owned trucks without bargaining with the union. City of Springfield, 41 MLC 383 (2015). The GPS trackers record location, idle time, distance driven, stops and speeding events, and give the employer access to [...]
Appeals Court: PD Can Reassign Officer from Dispatch to Street
A recent Massachusetts Appeals Court decision overturned a Department of Labor Relations ruling in a case where the Police Department replaced a sworn officer with a civilian dispatcher on the desk. The court specifically rejected the argument that a position was eliminated in dispatch for a police officer, observing that “the assignment to dispatch/desk duties [...]
Impasse Can Be Reached
The recent DLR case City of Boston and SEIU Local 888 (MUP-12-2332) presented the question whether the City had bargained to impasse about a transfer of bargaining unit work (crime scene lighting trucks) from the SEIU to Boston Police Detectives. The City gave the Union four weeks’ notice of its proposed change, met with the [...]
SJC: No Need to Bargain Retiree Health Insurance Contribution Rates
It has been four years since the Commonwealth Employment Relations Board ("CERB") took the view that municipal employers have a duty to bargain health insurance contribution rates of certain retirees, i.e. current employees who will retire in the future. Under CERB’s logic, an employer could unilaterally alter the health insurance contribution rate of persons already [...]
Calling All Employers: New DLR Decision Weighing in on Town’s Cell Phone Use Policy
The Department of Labor Relations issues a decision against the Town in a case dealing with Plymouth’s implementation of a policy that addressed the use of cell phones during work hours.