Opinion ID: 2279962
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Constitutionality of the Order

Text: Having concluded that the challenged order does not violate Maine statutory and case law, we cannot, for the reasons we state infra, decide the question whether it violates the federal Constitution. The collective bargaining agreement in which the employee discount is promised does not expire until May, 1982. Until we understand (1) how quickly the PUC intended the discount to be phased out and (2) in what way, if at all, abolition of the discount affects the current bargaining agreement, we cannot accurately formulate the issue purportedly before us. On the question of how quickly the discount must be phased out, the PUC's order is ambiguous and the body of the PUC's decision noncommittal. As to how the current agreement might be affected by the PUC's order, the record itself is insufficient. The Company introduced the collective bargaining agreement in evidence. The agreement provided, in pertinent part: The Company agrees that it will not of its own volition, without the consent of the Union, make any changes during the life of this Agreement in the following General Orders which would decrease the benefits for employees in the bargaining unit provided therein: ... General Order No. 212Electric Service Discount (emphasis added) General Order 212, which presumably contains all the terms of the employee discount, was not introduced in evidence. So long as General Order 212 is not in the record, the PUC points out, this Court must remain uncertain whether the Company's promise to leave the General Order alone is or is not conditioned on uninterrupted acceptance of the discount by the PUC. If General Order 212 did condition the Company's promise on the Commission's continued toleration of a discounted employee rate, then the Company would not be violating the collective bargaining agreement in complying with the PUC's order. Similarly, the Company might not be committing a breach if the phrase not of its own volition, as used to modify the otherwise prohibited activity of unilaterally changing a General Order, is broad enough to exonerate the Company's obedience to the PUC. Next to these gaps in the record stands a crucial ambiguity in the order itself. The Commission's order requires the Company to submit to this Commission a plan to phase out the employee discount by no later than January 1, 1981. In the body of the decision, the PUC declares: While only 50% of the Company's employees are affected by the contract, and while the provision relating to the discount can apparently be negotiated at any time, we find that fairness requires some degree of flexibility to allow the Company to extricate itself from its commitments to its employees. Rather than disallow the amount of the discount at this time, we will allow it as an expense but we will order the Company to present us with a plan for phasing out the discount as expeditiously as possible. We will consider the Company's proposals during Phase II of this proceeding.  (emphasis added) The deadline specified in the PUC's order, January 1, 1981, appears to fall at or near the beginning of Phase II of this proceeding. Inferably, therefore, January 1, 1981, is the time by which a plan to phase out the discount was to have been submitted, not the time by which the phase-out itself was to have been accomplished. As to the latter event, we are told only that it is meant to occur as expeditiously as possible. That language does not inform us whether the discount is to be extinguished before or after the expiration of the current bargaining agreement. [3] If, as the Company asserts, the Commission seeks to rewrite the current agreement, then the preemption issue might be framed thus: under the circumstances of this case, should the order of a state regulatory agency be allowed to override a contractually agreed upon solution to a problem concerning which the National Labor Relations Act directs both management and union to bargain? If, on the other hand, the PUC was not seeking to rewrite the current agreement, but instead was seeking to assure that the employee discount not reappear in any subsequent agreement, then the issue must be posed differently, for example: should the challenged order, which affects non-union as well as union employees, be permitted to narrow the scope of future negotiations upon a mandatory subject of bargaining? Depending on which formulation of the issue is at stake, the considerations to be brought to bear may well be different. See, e. g., Malone v. White Motor Corp., 435 U.S. 497, 98 S.Ct. 1185, 55 L.Ed.2d 443 (1978). The PUC has moved to dismiss the constitutional challenge on the ground that it has been asserted by the Company for the first time on appeal. It is clear, however, that the order to phase out the employee discount was entirely unanticipated below. At no time during the proceedings did any party argue, or the hearing examiner recommend, that the discount be abolished. Instead, argument focused solely on the question of whether the Company's revenue requirements should be reduced by an amount equal to the discount. Fairness demands that we not dismiss the constitutional challenge regarding a matter that the Commission brought forward for the first time by its order and that the Company had no reason to anticipate as being involved. The ambiguity of the order and the insufficiency of the record require that we set aside the order and remand to the Commission. The PUC should clarify whether it intended that the employee discount be phased out before or after expiration of the current bargaining agreement, and, if before, additional evidence should be admitted and factual findings made on the exact terms of the discount and the impact of the order as to those terms.