Labor & Employment Law

Bargaining unit firefighters may wash and wax their personal vehicles in City fire stations during work time

Bargaining unit firefighters may wash and wax their personal vehicles in City fire stations during work time

City Of Oswego Firefighters Association, IAFF, Local 2707 and City Of Oswego, PERB Decision U-27221 ? [Adapted from PERB?s website]

The Board held that the City of Oswego violated §§209a.1(a) and (d) of the Taylor Law when it unilaterally eliminated a past practice that permitted unit employees to wash and wax their personal vehicles in City fire stations during work time.

The Board also held that a unit member's personal use of the City's fire stations to wash and wax their vehicles is a mandatory subject of negotiations

In addition, the Board decided that unit members had a reasonable expectation that the past practice would continue.

As the stipulation between the parties describing the scope of the past practice was limited to the City permitting unit members to wash and wax their personal vehicles in the fire stations, the City was not obligated to provide the unit members with the materials necessary to wash and wax their vehicles.

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on November 07, 2008 (boomark / email).