## Facts

- The Ohio State Employment Relations Board (SERB) charged the Youngstown City School District Board of Education (district) with unfair labor practices under Ohio’s public-sector collective-bargaining law.
- The district’s employees were represented by a union for purposes of collective bargaining.
- The district and the union had negotiated several collective-bargaining agreements (CBAs) in the past.
- Those prior CBAs included Early Retirement Incentive Plans (ERIPs).
- The district later adopted an ERIP for its employees without bargaining with the union before implementing the plan.
- SERB processed the charge and determined that the district’s unilateral adoption of the ERIP constituted an unfair labor practice.
- The district appealed SERB’s determination.
- On appeal, the district argued that ERIPs are permissive, not mandatory, subjects of bargaining under Ohio law.

## Issues

1. Whether an early retirement incentive plan (ERIP) is a mandatory subject of bargaining for a public employer under Ohio law.
2. Whether a public employer commits an unfair labor practice by unilaterally adopting an ERIP without bargaining with the employees’ exclusive representative.

## Decision

- SERB found that the district committed an unfair labor practice when it unilaterally adopted an ERIP without bargaining with the union.
- In reaching that result, SERB rejected the district’s position that ERIPs are merely permissive subjects of bargaining in this setting.
- SERB treated the ERIP as a bargaining matter requiring negotiations with the exclusive representative before implementation.

## Legal Principles

- Benefits that directly affect employees’ economic terms of employment may constitute mandatory subjects of bargaining in Ohio’s public sector.
- A public employer generally may not make unilateral changes on mandatory bargaining subjects without first bargaining with the employees’ exclusive representative.
- An employer’s unilateral implementation of a benefit plan that the parties have previously negotiated in CBAs can support a finding of an unfair labor practice.

## Conclusion

In re State Employment Relations Board v. Youngstown City School District Board of Education addresses whether a school district could adopt an early retirement incentive plan without bargaining. SERB concluded the district’s unilateral adoption of an ERIP, after ERIPs had been included in prior CBAs, amounted to an unfair labor practice and rejected the district’s claim that ERIPs were only permissive bargaining subjects in this context.


In re State Employment Relations Board v. Youngstown City School District Board of Education, 12 Ohio Pub. Employee Rep. 1543 (1995)