Legal Question in Employment Law in Pennsylvania

First, even though the new benefit may not be contained in the labor agreement, if the company and union agreed to the benefit it can legally be done because the employer and the union have the right to mutually agree to modify the labor contract. If the union was not involved in the decision to add the new benefit then the law requires that a company give the union an opportunity to bargain before changing the terms and conditions of employment which would include giving employees a new benefit that is not part of the labor contract. While it is generally an unfair labor practice for an employer to change the terms and conditions of employment without first giving the union an oppportunity to bargain and reaching impasse in good faith, from a practical standpoint, a union is not going to seek to have a benefit taken away from employees, although a union might, nonetheless, file an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board simply to get an unfair labor practice finding and a cease and desist order to prevent future changes that tend to undermine the strength of the union, but leaving the new benefit in place.