Should a party submit bargaining proposals prior to filing an unfair labor practice charge or a negotiability appeal?
Yes. In the General Counsel’s view, parties would be better served if the party seeking to negotiate formulates negotiable proposals to present to the other party rather than only filing an unfair labor practice charge or negotiability appeal. Only then will the other party be able to evaluate if the proposal is negotiable, rather than relying on a general position that a topic is nonnegotiable. For example, it is possible that the agency never intended to refuse to bargain over any particular proposal but merely set forth its view that the decision which triggered the request to bargain was the exercise of a management right. Similarly, to obtain a negotiability determination by the Authority, a union needs to present an actual proposal to the agency. Q. #13: Is it important to know the rules of negotiability to bargain successfully in the Federal sector? Yes. Although many parties bargain by utilizing “pre-decisional involvement” and interest-based methods, most parties at some occas
