BARGAINING (NEGOTIATING). A ubiquitous process--sometimes informal and spontaneous, sometimes formal and deliberate--of offer and counteroffer whereby parties to the bargaining process try to reach agreement on the terms of exchange. Deliberateness and a concern for bargaining strategy and tactics usually rise to the fore only when the stakes make such efforts worthwhile. Formal bargaining processes with associated rituals and bargaining routines vary, depending on their political, economic, and social context. Sometimes the formal requirements facilitate the process of reaching agreement; sometimes they become an end in themselves; and sometimes they are deliberately used in order to avoid or delay agreement. The process, as far as negotiations between collectivities is concerned--e.g., firms, unions, nations, and branches of government (e.g., budget negotiations between the President and the Congress)--has been analyzed into four subprocesses by Walton and McKersie in A Behavioral Theory of Labor Negotiations, 1965: distributive ("fixed pie") bargaining; integrative ("variable pie") bargaining (cf. "interest-based bargaining"); attitudinal structuring (cf. "partnering"); and intra-organizational bargaining, with real-world bargaining usually being a variable mixture of all four subprocesses.
BARGAINING AGENT. The union holding exclusive recognition for an appropriate unit.
BARGAINING IMPASSE (IMPASSE). When the parties have reached a deadlock in negotiations they are said to have reached an impasse in negotiations.* The statute provides for assistance by Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) mediators and the Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP) to help the parties settle impasses. If nothing avails, the FSIP can resolve the impasse by telling the parties what they are to put in their agreement or by ordering the use of interest arbitration by an agreed-upon private arbitrator. See
*Note: If the parties reach a bargaining impasse and the union timely invokes the services of the Impasses Panel, the agency must maintain the status quo to the maximum extent possible, consistent with the necessary functioning of the agency, in order to allow the Panel to take whatever action it deems appropriate.
BARGAINING UNIT. See Appropriate Unit.
BARGAINING UNIT STRUCTURE. The distribution of bargaining units by, e.g., size and location. It is often said that the bargaining unit structure in the Federal sector is "fragmented." Two additional appropriate unit criteria--effective dealings and efficiency of government operations--were among the changes Executive Order (EO) 11491 made over EO 10988 in order to combat the problem of fragmentation. EO 11491 was later amended to provide for unit consolidation procedures as another means of coping with unit fragmentation. See unit consolidation.
BEP TEST. A 2-prong test, articulated in Bureau of Engraving and Printing,
BINDING ARBITRATION. Under
BUDGET. A core right reserved to management by
We find that the first part of the budget test encompasses the specific process that is dedicated to formulating: (1) the budget estimate for an agency that is incorporated in the budget of the United States Government; (2) estimates for funding the operations and programs of an agency that are produced within the agency to provide the groundwork for the budget estimate that is incorporated in the budget of the United States Government; and (3) an agency's plan for allocating funds among its operations and programs once presidential and congressional action on the budget of the United States Government has occurred. Thus, the first part of the budget test removes from bargaining any mandated inclusion of programs, operations, and amounts in the estimates and plans that comprise an agency's budget process. As a practical matter, the first part of the test includes the prescription of the "line items" that will be contained in the budget estimates that are incorporated in the budget of the United States. It also encompasses the prescription of the items and amounts that will be included in the funding estimates and plans that are developed by the agency in conjunction with formulating and executing the budget of the United States.
Regarding the second part, in
BYPASS. Dealing directly with employees rather than with the
exclusive representative regarding negotiable
conditions of employment of bargaining
unit employees. A bypass is an unfair labor practice prohibited by section