Negotiations for 14 15

Kelley Baker kbaker@hslegalfirm.com

Karen Haase khaase@hslegalfirm.com @KarenHaase

Steve Williams

Bobby Truhe

swilliams@hslegalfirm.com @SteveisEsteban

btruhe@hslegalfirm.com @btruhe

NEGOTIATIONS ARE COMING! NEGOTIATIONS ARE COMING! We are writing to urge boards of education, administrators and teachers to move quickly to work through the negotiations process for the 2014-15 school year. This year both local teacher associations and boards of education will feel the effects of the new negotiations calendar.

By statute, you must now begin negotiations for the 2014-15 contract year by November 1, 2013. You have only until February 8th (100 days from November 1st) to finish negotiations. This means that you should have a draft agreement ready for board approval at the regular January board meeting. If that is not possible, the board will have to schedule a special meeting before its regular February meeting to approve the 2014-15 negotiated agreement. If the board and association cannot reach agreement

by February 8th, they must be ready to submit the matter to a resolution officer.

Recommendations. With all this in mind, we recommend the following: •

•

•

Beat the Negotiation Deadline. We strongly encourage boards to conclude negotiations and have a tentative agreement in place no later than the scheduled winter break and to ratify the agreement at the regular January board meeting. Why the urgency? Time flies by, especially around Christmas!

Issues in Dispute. The Commission of Industrial Relations will limit its consideration to those issues which the resolution officer determines that the parties (1) negotiated in good faith but (2) could not agree on. Therefore, it is imperative that you are prepared to negotiate about all of the issues of concern at the very first bargaining session.

Conduct a Comparability Study. We encourage boards to use a comparability study as part of the negotiations process for the following reasons: o If the parties cannot reach an agreement by February 8th, they must submit the matter to a resolution officer, who must decide the matter by March 25th. The resolution officer is required to choose the offer that

he/she believes was the most reasonable final offer on each issue actually in dispute (more on "actually in dispute" below). o A comparability study will demonstrate that your offer is the "most reasonable," because it is based upon actual and accurate information and comparisons with other school district’s salary and benefit schedules rather than guesswork or emotion. o The ultimate legal standard to determine teachers’ wages and conditions of employment is whether they are “prevalent” and the compensation is “comparable.” This information will be helpful to the resolution officer in fact finding and these are the standards that the Commission will use to decide the case. o The Commission uses a very particularized methodology for determining comparability, and a school district must be prepared to present its wage case in the form of a comparability study according to that established methodology. o A professional comparability study gives the board an invaluable “leg up” in collective bargaining. Without a comparability study, the board is going in “blind” and negotiating “from the hip." o Your local association will be receiving professional assistance from its union and will likely have its own comparability study. o Not all comparability studies are properly done. To be effective, a comparability study must be done extremely carefully, preferably by someone with experience in the Commission. If your comparability study does not reflect the Commission’s practices, it could do more harm than good both in terms of your bargaining outcome and your relationship with your local association. o It is not too late to secure a comparability study. Even if you sit down to negotiate before your comp study is completed, a study will help you complete the negotiations process with additional confidence that you are settling on an appropriate base salary.

If you have questions or if you do not believe your school district will be able to comply with these deadlines, you need to obtain professional advice promptly. We recommend that you consult with your school district’s attorney or call Steve, Bobby, Kelley, or Karen.

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