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1997-98 WEAC Issue Paper: School Calendar: Collective Bargaining Rights

Issue History

A key component of any employee's satisfaction in the workplace is the ability to play a role in decisions that influence the wages, hours and conditions of work. For education professionals and support personnel in public school districts, bargaining the school calendar is a significant part of that.

In 1967, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld a Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission decision in favor of Madison Teachers, Inc. relating to the school calendar issue. The Supreme Court decision established the school calendar as a mandatory subject of bargaining under sec. 111.70 of the Wisconsin state statutes. Subsequent decisions by the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission have enforced the 1967 Supreme Court ruling.

In recent years, many attempts have been made to diminish public school district employees' ability to bargain over the school calendar. These efforts have ranged from imposing a statewide school start date after Labor Day to completely prohibiting any bargaining over the school calendar. Currently, if a collective bargaining agreement is not reached prior to the beginning of the school year, a school board may set a starting date for the opening of school. The school board may also announce a tentative calendar pending the ratification of a contract that is consistent with the prior year's calendar.

1995-96 Legislative Action

In June of 1995, a bill was introduced in the Assembly (AB 423) that would make any school calendar proposal that is primarily related to wages, hours and conditions of employment a prohibited subject of collective bargaining. No action was taken on this bill.

In August of 1995, bills were introduced in the Assembly and Senate that would have made the school calendar a permissive subject of bargaining (AB 505/SB 299). These bills provided that a school district would not be required to bargain collectively to establish school calendars, but expressly required that a school district bargain collectively with respect to the impact of any school calendar decision on wages, hours and conditions of employment. Assembly Bill 505 passed the Assembly by a vote of 49-47. The bill was also recommended by the Senate Labor Committee but was never scheduled for a vote by the full Senate.

WEAC/WFT Position

The Wisconsin Education Association Council and the Wisconsin Federation of Teachers support provisions in current law that establish the mandatory right of school district employees to collectively bargain over the school calendar.

Talking Points

A key component of any worker's satisfaction is the right to play a role in decisions that influence the conditions in which he/she works. Establishing the school calendar as a permissive subject of bargaining would allow school boards to add, subtract or alter days in a contract. These actions would polarize relationships between school administration and employees, negatively affecting employee morale. This atmosphere could potentially harm the quality of education.
Education employees in our public schools are the practitioners of the learning process. They understand the learning cycles of children and are the best equipped to make recommendations on when pupils need breaks. Establishing the calendar as a permissive or prohibited subject of bargaining would remove the practitioners from the calendar decision-making process.
The state-imposed revenue controls and the qualified economic offer (QEO) will have a significant impact on the calendar issue if it becomes a permissive subject of bargaining. Permissive subjects are not automatically sent to arbitration when disagreements over such subjects occur. School districts could use that fact to avoid negotiating the calendar. In addition, when a local school district offers a QEO, access to arbitration is also denied. Therefore, school districts offering a QEO could simply not respond to requests for bargaining the school calendar. In these situations, changes in the hours and days of employment could occur without negotiations ever taking place.
In the private sector and in many other states, the parties negotiate a work calendar, paid vacation days, paid holidays, personal and emergency leaves, hours worked, break time, premium pay for two or three shifts, differentiated pay for weekend and double time for working holidays. This is the equivalent of school employees bargaining the school calendar.

For More Information

Please contact Bob West, Director of Collective Bargaining, or Bob Burke in the Government Relations Division at WEAC at 800-362-8034 or 608-276-7711 with any reactions, comments or questions.

Posted November 25, 1996