Employees generally have the right to join together to address concerns at work and to seek to improve their terms and conditions of work. Some examples of subjects found to be included in the phrase “terms and conditions,” include rates of pay, wages, hours, fringe benefits, safety, workload, staffing, layoff procedure, and a grievance procedure. It may be an unfair labor practice for an employer or a union to refuse to bargain on a topic deemed to be a “mandatory subject of bargaining.” Although no statute expressly defines all the “terms and conditions” of employment, if bargaining over the subject would resolve a significant aspect of the employer-employee relationship, it is more likely to be considered a mandatory subject of bargaining.
