Opinion ID: 1118958
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the unfair labor practice charge

Text: In HEPB-ULP 16, the HEP Board examined the declaration of purpose sections of the State Higher Education Personnel Law (RCW 28B.16.010) and the Public Employees' Collective Bargaining Act (RCW 41.56.010). The interests of state institutions of higher education and the employees of those institutions will be furthered by the enactment of a system of personnel administration designed specifically to meet particular needs in connection with employer-employee relations in the state institutions of higher education. The general purpose of this chapter is to establish a system of personnel administration for the institutions of higher education in the state which is based on merit principles and scientific methods, and which governs the appointment, promotion, transfer, layoff, recruitment, retention, classification and pay plans, removal, discipline, and welfare of employees covered under this chapter. (Italics ours.) RCW 28B.16.010. The HEP Board concluded that the intent of the Legislature expressed in those statutes was to create a uniform system of personnel administration in the state institutions of higher education. Having found the prevailing practice in Washington state government and state higher education institutions includes the systemwide practice of providing release time, the HEP Board concluded that the college breached its duty to meet at reasonable times, to confer and bargain in good faith through its arbitrary and unilateral rejection of any consideration of `release time' without loss of pay for employee members of the bargaining team. HEPB-ULP 16, conclusion 5, at 6. The HEP Board went on to state that: In a pre-negotiation agreement wherein the parties mutually agree to the format and the conduct of the bargaining process, determination of what constitutes reasonable  times should be the province of the parties. In determining reasonableness, the parties are obliged to consider both the operational welfare of the institutions and the rights and expectations of employees as intended by the Legislature and as expressed by statute. Conclusion 6, at 7. The college raises a number of challenges to the HEP Board's ruling. Its first argument is that the HEP Board exceeded the scope of its statutory authority in ruling on the issue of release time. It urges that the HEP Board infringed upon the express legislative grant of authority to the boards of trustees of community colleges to fix duties (RCW 28B.50.140(3)) and to adopt policies on granting leaves for employees (RCW 28B.50.551). Thus, the college argues for an extremely restrictive interpretation of the HEP Board' statutory authority under RCW 28B.16.100 to oversee the conduct of collective bargaining between a community college and its classified employees. Such a restrictive approach is unwarranted. [5] In the context of this same dispute, we previously clarified and underscored the HEP Board's power and authority to arbitrate impasse issues arising from the collective bargaining process. Green River Comm'ty College v. Higher Educ. Personnel Bd., 95 Wn.2d 108, 622 P.2d 826 (1980), modified, 95 Wn.2d 962, 633 P.2d 1324 (1981). The HEP Board was accorded authority over both the conduct and the obligation of state institutions of higher education to bargain collectively in good faith through inclusion in RCW 28B.16.230 of the unfair labor practice provisions of the Public Employees' Collective Bargaining Act. RCW 41.56.140-.190. Under RCW 41.56.140(4), [i]t shall be an unfair labor practice for a public employer ... [t]o refuse to engage in collective bargaining. Under RCW 41.56.160, the HEP Board is directed to prevent unfair labor practices. The HEP Board's construction of the statute it has been charged to administer is entitled to great weight. Green River College, at 117-18; Sellers, at 325-26. In Green River College, at page 119, we examined the  legislative history of RCW 28B.16 and the statutory mission of the HEP Board, and said: [C]ommunity colleges have few management rights under any circumstances. Community college districts are administered under the supervisory regulations of both the State Board for Community College Education and the Higher Education Personnel Board. Greenwood v. State Bd. for Community College Educ., 82 Wn.2d 667, 513 P.2d 57 (1973); Centralia College Educ. Ass'n v. Board of Trustees, 82 Wn.2d 128, 508 P.2d 1357 (1973); Cunningham v. Community College Dist. 3, 79 Wn.2d 793, 489 P.2d 891 (1971). Even the terms of employment for classified personnel in community colleges are governed by the specific provisions of RCW 28B.16.101. Although the statute provides that local colleges may initially exercise discretion on certain issues, that same provision grants the HEP Board audit and review powers. RCW 28B.16.101. Thus, any management rights of the colleges are subject to review by the HEP Board. (Italics ours.) In fulfilling its duty to regulate the practice of collective bargaining, including designating which terms of negotiation are to be the subject of mandatory negotiation, the HEP Board has acted well within the scope of its statutory authority. The college next contests the HEP Board's finding that the college failed to bargain in good faith on the release time issue, as well as the finding that provision of paid release time constitutes the prevailing practice in Washington state government and in Washington state higher education institutions. The college offers as evidence of its bargaining, letters to WFSE in which the college offered a number of negotiation options, none of which included a provision for any consideration of paid release time. Applying the standard of judicial review for agency factfinding set forth in Sellers, a review of the entire record reveals that the agency's findings were not clearly erroneous, in that they do not leave the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.  [6] The HEP Board's characterization of the actions of the college as an unfair labor practice present a mixed question of fact and law: the application of RCW 41.56.140.190 to the facts as found. Although the reviewing court applies the error of law standard to agency conclusions of law, a heightened degree of deference is appropriate where the agency's construction of a statute is within the agency's field of expertise ( Sellers, at 325-26), as in the instant case. Here, the HEP Board examined the relevant statutes and reasonably concluded that the college's outright refusal to even consider the option of paid release time, in the face of a statewide prevailing practice, constituted an unfair labor practice. The HEP Board was fulfilling its obligation to further the legislative purpose of  providing a uniform basis for implementing the right of public employees to join labor organizations of their own choosing and to be represented by such organizations in matters concerning their employment relations with public employers. HEPB-ULP 16, conclusion 6, at 7, quoting RCW 41.56.010. The college also argues that granting release time with pay may be an unconstitutional gift of public funds in violation of Const. art. 8, § 5. In the alternative, it argues that the granting of release time may constitute an unfair labor practice. The HEP Board rejected these arguments, as do we. Whatever lingering doubt there may have been with regard to these issues was put to rest in the controlling case of State ex rel. Graham v. Northshore Sch. Dist. 417, 99 Wn.2d 232, 662 P.2d 38 (1983).