NCJ Number
70703
Date Published
1980
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This Canadian paper discusses four factors which characterize the collective bargaining process of police command issues: legality, bargainability and arbitrability, arbitration decisionmaking criteria, and resolution structures.
Abstract
Police organizations have achieved some success in obtaining economic settlements for their members, and in recent years have turned to issues previously identified as belonging to the jurisdiction of police command. Disputes over such issues are particularly difficult to resolve because of the dispersion of command responsibilities. The most important legal consideration raised by command issue disputes is not whether the collective agreement clause sought is illegal, but whether it is legal to insist upon the negotiation of such a clause or to refer the dispute to an arbitrator. Only the Ontario (Canada) courts have produced a body of jurisprudence directed at collective bargaining and at the issue of whether certain areas are bargainable, arbitrational, or both. Criteria for arbitration decisionmaking are difficult to establish. So far, only the general criteria that public sector employees should not be required to subsidize the community by accepting substandard wages and working conditions, and the doctrine of fairness have been applied to command issue disputes. Finally, neither the standard adjudicative arbitration model nor the final offer selection model of dispute settlement lends itself to effective resolution of command issue disputes. The mediation-arbitration model may possibly best serve the needs of these disputes. A total of 29 reference notes are included. The discussion which followed the paper's presentation is appended.