Opinion ID: 2379464
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Violation of Statutory Authority

Text: The employees' first argument on appeal is that the Board acted in excess of its statutory authority when it lowered employee classifications in the absence of a downward appeal. From the mere language of P. & S.L.1975, ch. 147, pt. D, sec. 6, to the effect that the Board shall have exclusive jurisdiction to hear appeals from employees, their designated representatives and from state appointed authorities concerning the allocation of classifications and unclassified employees to pay grades, the employees view the Board's authority on appeal as limited to a review of the classifications for purposes of upward or downward correction depending on whether the particular appeal is an upward appeal or downward appeal; in other words, so they claim, the Board may not correct an error in the classification, unless the corrective relief is favorable to the appellant. Thus, the plaintiffs contend that the Board was powerless to lower an employee classification, where there was no appellant or cross-appellant specifically advocating that result. We disagree. We take notice that the appeal statute does not expressly cast any such restraint upon the Board, but rather, confers upon it in broad terms the power to correct any error in classification. Nothing in the legislative language indicates an intent on the part of the Legislature to tie down the Board's exercise of power depending on the nature of the appeal, i.e. whether the error comes to light in an upward or downward appeal. It is rather obvious that, confronted with the need for the redesigned classification and compensation system for state employees, as devised by the Hay Plan which it was enacting to become operative at the earliest possible time, the Legislature, anxious to secure for the Plan an added guaranty of accuracy, structured an appeals process to provide the mechanism whereby alleged wrongful classifications could be centered upon and reevaluated, and, if found incorrect, would be expunged and replaced by proper classifications. A statutory construction in line with the plaintiffs' contention would have prevented and prohibited the Board from bringing out the truth of the situation and from doing justice between the employer state and the employees, a result completely at odds with the very goal which the Legislature had in mind in setting up the reviewing process on appeal. Furthermore, to analogize the operations of the Board to those of a court, as the plaintiff-employees would have us do, is to misconceive the purpose for which the Board was created. The objective of the 1975-1977 changes in the services and compensation system for state employees requires that the Board's mission be construed more broadly than that of an appellate court. Through the reorganization of the system, the Legislature sought to provide equal pay for equal work. P. & S.L.1975, ch. 147, sec. 7 (statement of State Pay Policy). Interpreting the Board's authority to include downgrading (or upgrading) an employee classification even in the absence of a downward (or upward) appeal is consistent with this stated objective. The appeal section of the Act (P. & S.L. 1975, ch. 147, pt. D, sec. 6) gives broad authority to the Board to ensure that the current job specification or position description is correct and that the job has been properly evaluated . . . considered in relationship to all other jobs in State Government. (emphasis added). Id. In order to achieve an equitable distribution of job positions to pay ranges, it was necessary for the Board to have considerable latitude in carrying out its review function. By its action the Board concluded that equal pay for equal work could be achieved only by lowering some classifications, notwithstanding the absence of a specific downward appeal. Viewing the Act as a piece of comprehensive legislation, from the specific mandate imposed upon the Board to ensure accuracy of position classification, we perceive a legislative intent, that any job classification appeal will subject that classification to complete reevaluation under the statutory guidelines. There is nothing inherent in the nature of a legal review that precludes the reviewing body from requiring the party that invokes the body's authority to place something at risk as a price for securing review. Cf. Gilman v. Gilman, 53 Me. 184 (1865) (on de novo review of probate court, judgment against defendant-appellant may be increased); M.R.Civ.P. 56(c) (summary judgment may be entered against moving party). Given the Board's substantial and broad responsibilities to be carried out as expeditiously as possible within a very short span of time, it was entirely consistent with the express directives of the Act for the Board to lower pay classifications without regard to the absence of a downward appeal.