The Rochester Fire Fighters Association, Local 1071, in New York filed an improper practice charge alleging that the City of Rochester violated § 209-a.1(d) of the Public Employees’ Fair Employment Act by refusing to bargain over the impact of the City’s issuance of incorrect W-2 forms to bargaining-unit firefighters. Section 209-a.1(d) makes it an improper practice for a public employer to refuse to negotiate in good faith with the certified or recognized bargaining representative of its employees regarding terms and conditions of employment.
The dispute arose after the City issued W-2 forms in January 2024 for the 2023 tax year. Several firefighters had received New York State Health Care Worker Bonus payments under recently enacted state legislation. The City initially reported those bonuses as taxable income when, under the governing program rules, they should have been reported as non-taxable income. After discovering the error in March 2024, the City issued corrected W-2 forms to affected employees.
The Union demanded to negotiate “the financial effect the City’s error will have on its members,” asserting that firefighters either would improperly pay state income tax on the bonus payments or would incur the cost and effort of filing amended tax returns once the corrected forms were issued. After some scheduling delays, the parties discussed the issue at a June 7, 2024, labor-management meeting. During that meeting, the Union again asked to bargain over the financial impact on employees who needed to file amended returns. The City declined, responding that the issue did not implicate a negotiable term or condition of employment.
An ALJ dismissed the charge.
The ALJ first explained that the negotiability of the City’s decision to issue corrected W-2 forms was not at issue. For purposes of the case, the decision was treated as a non-mandatory subject of bargaining. Even when an employer acts within a managerial prerogative, however, it must negotiate the impact of that decision on employees’ terms and conditions of employment if the union makes a valid demand.
Here, the ALJ found that the City did not refuse to bargain in good faith. The record showed that the Union demanded negotiations over the financial effects of the W-2 error and that the parties met to discuss the issue at the June 2024 labor-management meeting. Although the City declined to make concessions, PERB precedent requires only that parties make “some reasonable effort” to resolve their differences. The ALJ concluded that the City satisfied that obligation by meeting with the Union and discussing the matter.
The ALJ further held that the asserted financial effects were not a negotiable “term and condition of employment.” The Union’s demand focused on the costs employees might incur from paying state income tax on the bonus or filing amended tax returns. The ALJ concluded that those consequences stemmed from employees’ personal tax obligations rather than from the employment relationship itself. While economic benefits tied to employment can be negotiable, the ALJ emphasized that such benefits must have a “nexus to the employment.” The acts of paying income tax or filing amended returns were personal tax matters performed outside work and “unrelated to the employment itself.”
Because the Union failed to establish that the City refused to bargain in good faith or that the claimed financial effects involved a negotiable term or condition of employment, the ALJ dismissed the charge.
Rochester Fire Fighters Ass’n, Local 1071, IAFF v. City of Rochester, 58 PERB ¶ 4569, 58 Off. Dec. of N.Y. Pub. Empl. Rel. Bd. ¶ 4569 (N.Y. PERB ALJ Nov. 13, 2025).