Experienced union attorneys who represent Ohio public sector unions regularly encounter situations where well-meaning employers stumble into unfair labor practice charges by making what they consider "minor" changes without bargaining. These unilateral changes can devastate workplace morale, undermine collective bargaining relationships, and most importantly, violate fundamental rights under Ohio law.

Every union representative and member needs to understand how to protect the status quo and stop illegal unilateral changes before they take root.

Understanding Your Shield: The Status Quo Doctrine

The status quo serves as a union's protective shield during negotiations and beyond. Under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 4117, employers cannot simply decide to change wages, hours, or working conditions without sitting down at the bargaining table first. This protection extends through negotiations for successor agreements and continues until statutory dispute resolution procedures are exhausted.

Consider it this way: when negotiating a new contract, the old rules stay in place. The employer cannot pressure the union by taking away benefits, changing schedules, or altering working conditions to gain leverage. This creates what the law calls a "non-coercive atmosphere" for negotiations. Without this protection, employers could simply impose worse and worse conditions until unions capitulated to their demands.

The status quo includes more than just the written contract terms. It encompasses established patterns and customs that have become part of workplace culture. If an employer has given annual step increases for the past decade, that practice becomes part of the status quo that must be maintained, even if the contract expires.

Recognizing Illegal Changes: More Common Than Expected

Public employers violate the duty to bargain more often than many realize, and their excuses follow predictable patterns. "We had to act quickly," they say. "We thought this was a management right," they claim. "We were just trying to help employees," they insist.

None of these excuses matter under Ohio law. The duty to bargain over mandatory subjects exists regardless of the employer's intentions or timeline preferences. Recent cases have made this crystal clear. When the City of Cleveland hired part-time paramedics to perform bargaining unit work without negotiating, they claimed management rights. The Ohio courts rejected this argument entirely in 2024, finding bad faith bargaining despite the City's protestations.

Similarly, when the City of Bedford Heights switched firefighters from their traditional 24/48 hour schedule to a 10/14 schedule without bargaining, they likely thought they were exercising management prerogatives over scheduling. Wrong. Hours and schedules are quintessential mandatory subjects of bargaining.

The Broad Scope of Mandatory Bargaining Subjects

What counts as a mandatory subject of bargaining? More than most employers want to admit. Obviously, wages, hours, and core benefits require bargaining. But the obligation extends much further.

Take technology implementation, for example. When an employer installs dashboard cameras in vehicles or implements new software systems, they often view this as a pure management decision. However, if those cameras might be used for discipline, or if the software changes how employees perform their work, bargaining becomes mandatory. Privacy concerns, HIPAA compliance issues, and changes to job duties all trigger the bargaining obligation.

Health and fitness standards present another common battleground. Employers sometimes impose new physical fitness requirements, thinking employee health falls within management rights. But when failing those standards leads to discipline or affects employment status, they become mandatory subjects requiring negotiation.

The reassignment of bargaining unit work deserves special attention. Employers frequently try to save money by having supervisors, part-timers, or contractors perform union work. Every such reassignment requires bargaining, period. This includes abolishing union positions and creating "new" non-union positions that perform essentially the same work.

Strategic Responses to Unilateral Changes

When discovering an employer has made or plans to make a unilateral change, speed matters. Document everything immediately: when the union learned of the change, who communicated it, what exactly is changing, and which employees are affected. Then demand to bargain immediately in writing.

The demand should be specific and forceful. Identify the proposed change, cite the obligation to maintain status quo, demand immediate bargaining, and insist the employer rescind any implemented changes. Send this demand to the highest-level administrator possible, with copies to union counsel and any relevant boards or commissions.

Don't accept delay tactics. Employers often claim they need to implement changes due to budget deadlines, grant requirements, or operational necessities. These are their problems, not the union's. Emergency circumstances that truly make bargaining impossible are extraordinarily rare. Courts have consistently held that poor planning by the employer does not create an emergency excusing the bargaining obligation.

Filing Unfair Labor Practice Charges

If the employer proceeds with changes despite demands to bargain, file an unfair labor practice charge with SERB immediately. The statute of limitations is only 90 days from when the union knew or should have known about the violation, so waiting to see if things improve is not advisable.

The charge should detail the specific changes made, identify the mandatory subjects involved, describe attempts to bargain, and explain how the changes affect bargaining unit members. Request all appropriate remedies: rescission of the changes, restoration of the status quo, making employees whole for any losses, and posting of notices acknowledging the violation.

Remember that good faith is measured objectively, not by what the employer claims they intended. An employer who consistently maintains they have no duty to bargain over mandatory subjects demonstrates bad faith, regardless of how politely they state their position.

Building Long-Term Protections

While fighting individual unilateral changes is important, building contractual protections provides longer-term security. During negotiations, propose strong status quo language that explicitly continues all terms, conditions, practices, and benefits unless specifically modified. Include broad definitions of what constitutes terms and conditions of employment.

Consider proposing specific notice and bargaining requirements for common changes like technology implementation, schedule modifications, or work reassignments. The clearer the contract language, the harder it becomes for employers to claim confusion about their obligations.

Document existing practices and customs that aren't explicitly in the contract. When annual raises, certain scheduling patterns, or specific benefits have become standard practice, create a paper trail acknowledging these conditions. This documentation becomes crucial if the union later needs to prove what the status quo actually included.

Conclusion: Vigilance Protects Rights

The law provides strong protections against unilateral employer changes, but those protections only work if unions actively enforce them. Every time an employer gets away with making changes without bargaining, it becomes easier for them to do it again. More importantly, each concession weakens the principle that workers, through their unions, have a voice in determining their working conditions.

Stay alert for changes, respond quickly when they occur, and never accept the excuse that the employer meant well or didn't know better. The duty to bargain is fundamental to public sector labor relations in Ohio. Make sure employers respect it, because union members' rights depend on maintaining that respect.

When employers change the rules without unions, they're not just violating a technical legal requirement. They're undermining the entire foundation of collective bargaining. Don't let them get away with it.