A performance standard is an expectation of management defined as behaviors and results that employees can deliver. Private employers develop their own standards individually or in negotiation with union representatives. Federal and state laws, which vary by state, exist which determine standards applicable to many public employees.
For example, the Office of Personnel Management administers federal regulations applicable to its agency officials in their dealings with labor organizations . The requirement that performance standards be negotiated, or established by a "panel of experts" or a joint committee is nonnegotiable. It has been more common, however, for proposals to prescribe criteria or requirements that management will adhere to or comply with when management establishes or adjusts performance standards.Where, for example, the criteria are also required by law, they do not interfere with management rights because those rights have to be exercised in accordance with applicable laws.
A substantial part of the negotiability case law on performance involves attempts by unions to negotiate indirectly the content of performance standards by, e.g., placing restrictions on the kind of data management can collect and consider in evaluating performance. Such restrictions are nonnegotiable because they have the effect of determining performance standards.
