Recommended Citation
Ford, Elizabeth, "Delaware" (2025). Uncommon Law. 16.
https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/uncommonlaw/16
COinS
Comments
Delaware law governing police and non-police bargaining is separated into two largely identical statutory schemes. Both statutes provide for interest arbitration and adopt “baseball arbitration” to expedite the arbitration process. Keeping with the goal of expedient dispute resolution, the state’s ULP process seems designed to facilitate settlement.
As a result of this ULP structure, there are few cases from Delaware’s PERB compared to other states. This may have to do with the fact that the myriad preliminary stages of ULP proceedings serve as “off-ramps” to encourage settlement and that the agency’s Executive Director (E.D.) has more power than non-Delaware analogs. It appears that once the E.D. has made their determination of probable cause, most cases resolve—either through dismissal, where there is no probable cause, or through settlement, where there is