What are the subjects of collective bargaining?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

All subjects of bargaining are either mandatory or permissive. Many people mistakenly assume that wages are the only real issue that unions bargain over. Unions have been successful in negotiating higher wages for workers in most professions. The scope of bargaining items, however, is much more expansive than merely wages. Mandatory subjects of collective bargaining are those over which the parties must bargain: rates of pay, wages, hours of employment, and other terms and conditions of employment. Failure to bargain over these subjects constitutes an unfair labor practice. All other bargaining subjects are permissive and need not be bargained over. Management decisions concerning the commitment of capital and the basic scope of the enterprise, for instance, are not primarily about conditions of employment and, thus, are not mandatory. Inclusion of a permissive subject in the bargaining process in one year, even if that results in its inclusion in a collective bargaining agreement, does not make that subject an issue of mandatory bargaining in any future contract. The only subjects that cannot be included in the bargaining process are illegal terms, such as a contract clause that would require unlawful discrimination by the employer.
Unions have traditionally tried to expand the scope of mandatory items. Mandatory items concerning wages include piece rates, shift differentials, incentives, severance pay, holiday pay, vacation pay, profit sharing, stock option plans, and hours (including overtime provisions). Mandatory items concerning conditions of employment include layoff and recall provisions, seniority systems, promotion policies, no-strike and no-lockout clauses, grievance procedures, and work rules. In a case that generated a lot of interest, the U.S. Supreme Court held that even changes in prices offered in a company cafeteria were subject to mandatory bargaining.