Safety as Mandatory Bargaining Issue

Jackie

Can anyone explain or give examples of why Safety is listed as a Mandatory Bargaining Subject when Management has the right to establish internal safety policies?

Currently, the safety policy only requires employees to wear the shoes & glasses from the time they leave the lockerroom and go to their workstations. We would like to change our policy to require them to wear them on entry & until exiting the factory area but are concerned this change requires mandatory bargaining with the Union.

Our contract only covers the requirement of the company to pay for part or all of the cost of the shoes & glasses.

Hatchetman

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 05-08-02 AT 05:40PM (CST)[/font][p]If you fall under the NLRA, the generic subjects for negotiation between union and managemenet are wages, hours and working conditions. The NLRB and courts have given meaning to those subjects over the 60 plus years the NLRA has been around, indicting which are particular items under those generic subjects are manadatory or permissive. I don't know if it was the NLRB itself has ruled that "safety" is subject to negotiations under NLRA or an appellate court.

But clearly, safety is a primary factor in "working conditions" by any reaosnable description of the term. In fact, that has been one fo the rationales for organizing work forces -- the lax safety precautions of employers in manufacturing, in chemical, in construction, in mining, in just about anything that requires more risk to injury than ust sitting at a desk, which can at times be very dangerous).

HRAMERICA

No doubt that safety should be a joint mgt./union project. However, if the Company is of the firm conviction that certain bona fide safety rules and regs should be put in place and the union refuses to accept same, then in such an event the Company should proceed to institute said safety rules/regs giving the employees ample notice of the forthcoming effective date of said rules/regs. It is a certainty that if an emplopyee is injured that the Company will be held responsible for the injury. Additionally, your management rights within the Collective Bargaining Agreement should give the Company the right to make reasonable rules/regs to provide safety for all employees and govern the workplace. Moreover, the employees also have a safety responsibility under the OSHA regs. It is painfully obvious that the Company has an nonforfeitable obligation under OSHA to provide as safe workplace for all of its employees.

WOCO Frank

When I was with a union employer, we (HR) routinely requested and received formal recommendations on safety rules from our "safety consultant", who was actually our work comp TPA. These recommendations typically listed the safety policy we wanted to enact, and stated that such a policy was necessary to reduce risk to our employees and meet "the spirit" of OSHA guidelines. The TPA's letter was then posted in each plant with the notice of policy change. We were challenged by the local stewards a few times, but in each case the policy remained on the books and enforced until it could be officially negotiated with the next contract.