Copyright© 2007 by School Services of California, Inc.
Volume 20 For Publication Date: August 31, 2007 No. 19
How Do We Prepare for
Negotiating Items
that May or May Not Have a Fiscal Impact?
Q. We are in the process of preparing for negotiations with our teachers’ union. This year we have several language issues on the table. You have published a lot of information on how to prepare documentation for the fiscal aspects of negotiations for such issues as salaries, benefits, and class size. Do you have any advice on how to prepare documentation for negotiations for items that may or may not have a significant fiscal impact?
A. On the employee compensation side, you are correct that we have published numerous articles on how to prepare for negotiations—the primary focus being on comparability and maintenance of effort. Comparability means that, as compared to some appropriate group of districts, the district’s salaries, benefits, and other compensation elements are similar. Maintenance of effort means that the position the district has offered during bargaining will preserve the district’s relative standing on these items.
Government Code Section 3458.2 makes no distinction between financial and nonfinancial articles.
We believe that these same principals can be applied to other aspects of the contract. For example, how do management rights in the areas of transfer and evaluation in the contract compare to those present in other agreements? Are we moving in the same direction as other districts in terms of maintaining the flexibility we need to serve our changing needs? Those questions deal with comparability and maintenance of effort, not in the fiscal sense, but in the context of program delivery. Many districts use Bargaining Hunter or gather contracts from comparable districts to demonstrate these points.
So start by using one of these methods to gather similar articles from collective bargaining agreements from the districts that you compare with. Then analyze the comparison provisions to identify the elements that would help move your language in the direction of your goals. Finally, redraft the article in your contract to be aligned more closely with your goals, and, with the support of the comparative articles from other districts, incorporate those articles into your initial bargaining position along with the monetary items.
So preparation for the program side of negotiations can be very similar to preparations for the fiscal aspects of negotiations. And finally, we recommend that you make all of your financial and employee compensation proposals “package deals” that include your management “nonfiscal” proposals—don’t use all of your flexibility until you have full agreement.
[Posted to the Internet 8/20/07] —Ron Bennett and John Gray