Title: In re Verderber

State: vermont

Issuer: Vermont Supreme Court

Document:

In re Verderber (2000-565); 173 Vt. 612; 795 A.2d 1157

[Filed 14-Feb-2002]

[Motion for Reargument Denied 29-Mar-2002]

                                 ENTRY ORDER

                      SUPREME COURT DOCKET NO. 2000-565

                             JANUARY TERM, 2002

In re Grievance of Gustav Verderber   }          APPEALED FROM:
and  Vermont State Colleges Faculty   }
Federation	                      }
                                      }
                                      }	         Labor Relations Board
                                      }	
                                      }
                                      }	         DOCKET NO. 00-22

             In the above-entitled cause, the Clerk will enter:

       The Vermont State Colleges Faculty Federation (Federation) appeals a
  Labor Relations Board  decision that courses taught in Johnson State
  College's External Degree Program (EDP) are not  bargaining unit work and
  that EDP instructors are not members of the part-time faculty bargaining 
  unit.  The Federation contends that: (1) the Board erred because the plain
  language of the collective  bargaining agreement covers EDP course
  assignments; (2) Johnson State's past treatment of EDP  course assignments
  does not establish a past practice of treating the work as non-bargaining
  unit  work; and (3) EDP instructors have been members of the part-time
  faculty bargaining unit since its  inception.  We affirm.

       In 1991, the Federation was certified by the Board as the exclusive
  bargaining representative  of a unit of part-time faculty who have taught
  for at least three semesters.  Since then, the Federation  and the Vermont
  State Colleges have negotiated several successive agreements, including one
  for  September 1, 1998 to August 31, 2000, which is at the center of this
  dispute.  That agreement makes  no reference to EDP course work or
  instructors.  Gustav Verderber is a part-time faculty member at  Johnson
  State College and has taught mostly environmental science and biology at
  the College for  eleven years.

       Johnson State's main on-campus program and the EDP differ in
  significant ways.  The EDP  has a separate student body from the rest of
  Johnson State.  It is a state-wide educational program  through which older
  students can complete a bachelor's degree in their own localities.  EDP
  students  must have earned sixty credit hours before they are accepted to
  the program.  The typical EDP course  is delivered differently than an
  on-campus course.  For instance, EDP courses are taught at night,  over the
  internet or email, on Vermont Interactive Television, or once a month for
  eight hours on a  weekend.  These different formats require specialized
  presentation of the course material.  EDP  students are evaluated
  differently, as well.  Presentations, papers, and group projects are more 
  common than time-based testing.

       To accommodate these differences, the EDP has a separate
  administrative structure from the  rest of the College.  The program is run
  by a director who supervises eight mentors, each in a  different location
  around the state.  EDP students are assigned to the mentor in their
  respective 

 

  localities.  Rather than going to campus to take courses, the students work
  with their mentors to  create classes which meet their individual
  interests, needs, and schedules.  After meeting with their  local students
  prior to the start of each semester, the mentors recommend course offerings
  to the  program director.  The courses are considered Johnson State
  courses, but they are specially  designated in the course catalog and on
  the students' transcripts.

       Using their community contacts, the local mentors find and recommend
  local course  instructors.  On occasion, part-time college faculty are
  enlisted to teach a course.  More commonly,  however, the courses offered
  are prepared by locally-recommended instructors in an ad hoc and  highly
  individualized manner.  The director hires instructors after a perfunctory
  approval by the  academic dean of Johnson State.  When instructors are
  brand new to the EDP, they are hired subject  to the approval of the
  appropriate department chair, but they do not become members of the 
  academic departments.  Once instructors are approved, they have hardly any
  contact with the campus  and no contact with the dean or the department
  heads.  Neither the dean, nor any department chair,  has ever rejected any
  of the instructors chosen by the director.  All non-full time faculty -
  part time  bargaining unit members, part time faculty who are not members
  of the bargaining unit, and EDP  instructors - sign the same teaching
  contract, which includes the following boilerplate language:  "This
  appointment is subject to the terms and conditions of the current agreement
  between the  Vermont State Colleges and the Part-time Faculty Federation,
  and to the policies of the Vermont  State Colleges Board of Trustees."  EDP
  instructors and on-campus part-time faculty also receive the  same salary.

       After they are hired, EDP instructors are assigned courses differently
  than on-campus part-time  faculty.  On campus courses are scheduled by the
  various department chairs with the approval of the  academic dean.  In
  addition, under the collective bargaining agreement, bargaining unit
  faculty are  entitled to forty-five days notice of their course
  assignments.  The agreement also specifies what the  parties have described
  as "bargaining unit work": that is, it states that "teaching assignments
  with a  minimum of six (6) credits per semester shall be offered to
  bargaining unit members."

       EDP courses are scheduled by the program's director and state-wide
  mentors.  The EDP's  instructors are given no notice of course assignments
  and interact with only the local mentors in  working out course
  assignments.  Because the schedules of EDP students are more unpredictable
  and  the courses more ad hoc, EDP courses are canceled more often than
  on-campus courses.  When on-campus courses are canceled, part-time faculty
  covered by the collective bargaining agreement  receive a standard
  cancellation fee.  EDP instructors, on the other hand, have never been paid 
  cancellation fees, nor have they requested payment.  If an EDP course is
  canceled, the instructor is  paid nothing.

       The record below shows that Johnson State has never considered EDP
  courses as bargaining  unit work, and EDP instructors have never been
  considered part of the bargaining unit.  The EDP  director has never
  offered, or been instructed to offer, EDP courses to bargaining unit
  part-time  faculty.  The instructors have never paid dues or filed a
  grievance, despite the fact that the EDP  program predates the inception of
  the bargaining unit by more than ten years.  Until this grievance,  the
  Federation has done nothing that shows it considered EDP instructors as
  part of the bargaining  unit, or EDP courses as bargaining unit work.

 

       Following the procedures outlined above, the EDP's St. Albans mentor
  recommended offering  an environmental interpretation course in his area
  during the summer of 1998.  The EDP director  worked with the mentor to
  find an instructor and eventually hired Tony Burton.  Mr. Burton invested 
  a great deal of time developing the course, but not enough students signed
  up, so the class was  canceled.  Mr. Burton was not paid a cancellation
  fee.  During the following academic year grievant  Mr. Verderber told the
  EDP director that he was interested in teaching an EDP course during the
  next  summer.  The next summer the environmental interpretation course was
  offered again with a  different schedule to accommodate the students. 
  Although he understood that Mr. Verderber would  be competent to teach the
  course, the director offered the job to Mr. Burton, largely because Burton 
  had already designed the course for the prior summer.

       In April 2000, the Federation filed a grievance with the Labor
  Relations Board on Mr.  Verderber's behalf.  They alleged that Mr.
  Verderber was entitled to the teaching assignment under  the terms of the
  agreement.  In addition, they alleged that the director's decision was
  arbitrary and  capricious and that it was part of a pattern of
  discrimination against Mr. Verderber punishing him for  his union activity. 
  The Federation also alleged that EDP faculty were covered by the part-time 
  faculty collective bargaining agreement.  The Labor Relations Board found
  against the Federation on  all points and dismissed the grievance.  The
  Federation now appeals the Board's decision that EDP  courses are not
  bargaining unit work and that EDP instructors are not part of the
  bargaining unit.

       Judicial review of Labor Relations Board decisions is limited.  Milton
  Educ. & Support Assoc.  v. Milton Bd. of School Trustees, 171 Vt. 64, 69,