EMPLOYER REFUSAL TO BARGAIN IN GOOD FAITH; UNILATERAL CHANGE (FOR NEGOT OF SPECIFIC SUBJECTS, SEE SEC 1000, SCOPE OF REPRESENTATION) – Change in Past Practice

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When a collective bargaining agreement and the parties’ bargaining history are silent regarding a particular policy, the policy may be ascertained from the parties’ past practice. To legally constitute a past practice, the practice must be unequivocal, clearly enunciated and acted upon, and readily ascertainable over a period of time. Over a period of several years, the employer allowed union officers to discuss union business with individual employees in the drivers’ assembly room without obtaining prior permission. Because this practice was regular and consistent over time and accepted by the employer, it constituted a past practice. Therefore, the employer’s imposition of a rule requiring union officers to obtain prior permission to access employees in the assembly room constituted a change of the parties’ past practice.