What are examples of bad faith bargaining?


Editorial team Published on

Bad faith bargaining happens when a party goes through the motions of negotiating without a sincere intent to reach an agreement.

Common Examples

  • Surface Bargaining: Pretending to negotiate by holding meetings, but offering only extreme proposals or refusing to compromise so that no deal can ever be made.
  • Withholding Information: Refusing or delaying requests to provide relevant data, such as financial records or plans for layoffs, which the other party needs for meaningful talks.
  • Unilateral Changes: Changing wages, hours, or working conditions without negotiating with the union first or before reaching a true deadlock (impasse).
  • Unreasonable Delays: Repeatedly canceling meetings, showing up unprepared, or dragging out the schedule to stall progress.
  • Unqualified Representatives: Sending negotiators to the table who lack the actual authority to make decisions or bind their side to an agreement.
  • Regressive Bargaining: Suddenly taking back previous offers and replacing them with worse terms without any valid business or economic reason.
  • Insisting on Non-Mandatory Subjects: Demanding to push a permissive or illegal topic all the way to a breakdown in talks (impasse).

You can read the official legal definitions and rules on the National Labor Relations Board portal.