Opinion ID: 2328148
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Fiscal Concerns

Text: Underlying the Court's opinion and running throughout the argument of the University and the brief filed by the Maine School Boards Association as amicus curiae is the policy argument articulated by the Superior Courtthe Board should not be permitted to require a public employer caught in difficult economic times to continue to increase wages at rates agreed to when times were better. Implicit within the Superior Court's ruling is the argument that the Board is improperly infringing on governmental authority and the accountability of public employers to the taxpayer and citizenry. It is true that the Legislature carefully preserved the power of the public employer not to agree. Mountain Valley, 655 A.2d at 353. But it is equally true that the same Legislature imposed the duty to bargain, and it is that duty that the Board has interpreted to require the preservation of existing practices until impasse. Unquestionably there are significant fiscal implications involved when a public employer is required to continue a past practice set forth in an expired wage provision or health care plan while bargaining for a new contract. There is a meaningful legal difference, however, between compelling an agreement, and preserving the status quo while the parties are bargaining. Id. at 353. It is this distinction that the Act compels. In an effort to balance the bargaining relationship, the Legislature replaced the right to strike and engage in work stoppages with mediation, factfinding, and arbitration. See 26 M.R.S.A. § 1026. In public sector employment, impasse cannot occur until those procedures have been exhausted. Mountain Valley, 655 A.2d at 352. If impasse occurs, however, either party is free to institute unilateral change. It is conceivable that, in a particular case, before reaching impasse the parties may face a delay that exceeds the length of any contract that might be considered. The impasse procedures mandated by the Legislature necessarily involve delay. See Raymond G. McGuire & Bryan M. Dench, Public Employee Bargaining Under the Maine Municipal Public Employees Labor Relations Law: The First Five Years, 27 Me.L.Rev. 29, 108-19 (1975). Obviously, the financial consequences resulting from the combination of delay and the requirement of preserving the status quo, whether dynamic or static, are most pronounced in time of financial crisis. In my view, however, such policy concerns are properly matters for legislative consideration rather than a judicially-crafted hardship exception to the duty to bargain. See Stephen F. Befort, Public Sector Bargaining: Fiscal Crisis and Unilateral Change, 69 Minn.L.Rev. 1221, 1274 (1985) (Public sector bargaining is not an aberration that need be tolerated only when convenient or when its results are not too painful.) I would vacate the judgment and remand with instructions to enter an order affirming the decision of the Board.