Opinion ID: 2223849
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: unfair labor practice issues

Text: Appellants argue that employee pension contribution levels are a subject of bargaining which the legislature cannot unilaterally change without committing an unfair labor practice. Originally enacted in response to widespread dissatisfaction with the prevailing system of public employment labor relations, the Public Employment Labor Relations Act of 1971 (PELRA) provides a comprehensive structure for conflict resolution in public employment. See generally Note, The Minnesota Public Employment Labor Relations Act of 1971: Another Public Employment Experiment, 57 Minn.L. Rev. 134 (1972). Pursuant to Minn.Stat. § 179.66, subd. 2 (1982), PELRA places an obligation upon public employers to negotiate terms and conditions of employment, which in relevant part are defined, at Minn. Stat. § 179.63, subd. 18 (1982), as: the hours of employment, the compensation therefor including fringe benefits except retirement contributions or benefits, and the employer's personnel policies affecting the working conditions of the employees. (Emphasis added). Appellants' primary argument in support of their theory that the Act constitutes an unfair labor practice under PELRA is that the Act's 2% increase in employee contributions is violative of the employer's obligation to collectively bargain terms and conditions of employment. Although appellants concede that the express exclusion of retirement contributions or benefits in PELRA's definition of terms and conditions of employment removes the issue of employee pension contributions from the category of mandatory subjects of bargaining, they nonetheless argue that this statutory exclusion has no effect upon the status of employee contributions as a permissive subject of bargaining upon which, because contribution levels had been implicitly bargained into existing agreements, [24] the employer was obligated to negotiate. Appellants advance two arguments in support of their contention that pension contribution levels are a permissive subject of bargaining. First, appellants rely upon a 1975 letter to that effect from an attorney general's staff attorney who was assigned to the Metropolitan Transit Commission. This letter, however, is apparently not a formal opinion of the attorney general and, in any event, is not binding upon this court. See, e.g., Village of Blaine v. Independent School District No. 12, 272 Minn. 343, 353, 138 N.W.2d 32, 39 (1965). Second, appellants argue that the absence of a reference to retirement contributions or benefits in the provision of PELRA which lists matters upon which the public employer is not obligated to negotiate establishes that PELRA does not prohibit negotiations on these subjects. See Minn.Stat. § 179.66, subd. 1 (1982). In view of the fact that the cited provision expressly provides that it contains a nonexclusive list, this argument is hardly persuasive. A review of the legislative history of PELRA indicates that pension contribution levels were never intended to be a permissible subject of bargaining. The statutory exclusion of retirement contributions or benefits from the scope of bargainable terms and conditions of employment was added as an amendment to PELRA in 1973. Act of May 24, 1973, ch. 635, § 6, 1973 Minn.Laws 1526, 1527. The author of the amendment, Representative Donald Moe, explained the purpose of the exclusion when he offered the amendment before the House Committee on Governmental Operations: The purpose of the amendment is to take the negotiation of pension benefits out of the bill and preserve the present situation with regard to pension benefits and that is to keep them within the realm of the legislature. Statement of Rep. Donald Moe, House Committee on Governmental Operations, March 13, 1973. Representative Moe went on to explain that the exclusion was necessary to prevent the decentralized and discordant administration of public pensions, and to maintain legislative discretion over significant matters of budgetary policy. Id. This legislative record reflects a legislative intent to remove pension issues from the scope of permissible bargaining. Reviewing a statutory scheme of public employment relations which, in relevant part, is very similar to PELRA, the Iowa Supreme Court recently addressed this issue of the effect of a statutory exclusion of retirement issues from the scope of bargaining. In City of Mason City v. Public Employment Relations Board, 316 N.W.2d 851 (Iowa 1982), the Iowa court found that the legislative intent underlying the statutory exclusion was to completely remove issues regarding pensions from the scope of collective bargaining. Id. at 854. In so holding, the Iowa court identified three policy considerations which support the prohibition against negotiations concerning pension systems: (1) to permit employers to contain the rising cost of pension benefits; (2) to permit the legislature to participate in the making of significant government policy; and (3) to promote uniformity and to prevent the existence of disparate benefits between different funds based upon the skill and success of employees' bargaining representative. Id. We rely upon this reasoning and this evidence of legislative intent and hold that, pursuant to the exclusion in Minn.Stat. § 179.63, subd. 18 (1982), public pension issues are not subjects which may be collectively bargained. [25] Pursuing a separate unfair labor practice theory, appellants argue that the Act's provision which permits employees who choose to go on unpaid leaves of absence to continue to accrue most fringe benefits is a subject of bargaining which the legislature cannot unilaterally change without committing an unfair labor practice under PELRA. The Act provides that, until June 30, 1983, state employees who choose to go on unpaid leaves of absence may continue to accrue most fringe benefits as if they had been working during their leave periods. The accrual of such benefits in these circumstances was not permitted in any existing collective bargaining agreements, so there is no question that a unilateral change in the terms of existing contracts was made. The State Budget Director testified that the purpose of the provision was to save approximately $4,500,000 to help solve the state's immediate cash flow problem and to provide a benefit to employees that would offset any short-term losses caused by the increase in employee retirement contributions. Appellants challenge this unpaid leave provision on the ground that it constitutes an unfair labor practice because it produces a change in the terms and conditions of employment which was not collectively bargained. We hold that the legislature cannot commit an unfair labor practice under PELRA. Because the provision of PELRA that concerns employer unfair labor practices applies only to public employers, Minn.Stat. § 179.68, subd. 2 (1982), and because the Legislature is not a public employer under PELRA, Minn.Stat. § 179.74, subd. 2 (1982), legislative acts are not covered by PELRA. Public employees' sole avenue of relief for a unilateral legislative change in the terms and conditions of employment under an existing collective bargaining agreement is to proceed under state and federal constitutional provisions. Appellants contend that the collective bargaining process will be wholly undermined if the legislature is permitted to make unilateral changes after an agreement has already been reviewed and ratified. Any unilateral legislative change would, however, still be subject to constitutional constraints. These constraints, such as the standards discussed above regarding the guarantees of equal protection and due process and the constitutional prohibition of the impairment of contracts, would appear to respond to appellants' fears by operating to invalidate legislative actions which are arbitrary or irrational, or which do not further overriding public interests. Support for the view that legislative acts are not governed by PELRA can be found in Minnesota Education Association v. State of Minnesota, 282 N.W.2d 915 (Minn.1979), appeal dismissed, 444 U.S. 1062, 100 S.Ct. 1001, 62 L.Ed.2d 744 (1980). In that case, an arbitrator's award, rendered after an impasse in negotiations, was changed by the legislature during its ratification of the award. This unilateral change in the terms and conditions of employment was challenged, in part, on the ground that the legislature had no authority under PELRA to modify an arbitration award. In upholding the legislature's action, we reviewed the legislative history of PELRA and concluded that the legislature had reserved the right to modify all contracts, including arbitration awards. Id., 282 N.W.2d at 918. The policy reasons discussed in support of this holding are the necessity for the representatives of the people to retain final control over appropriations and to apply uniform budgetary considerations to numerous bargaining units. Id. Appellants attempt to distinguish Minnesota Education Association by arguing that its holding applies only to the authority of the legislature to modify terms and conditions of employment in conjunction with its approval of state employee collective bargaining agreements, and that the holding cannot be extended to apply where, as in the case at bar, the legislature enacts a unilateral change after it has previously approved an agreement. Although these changed circumstances may trigger greater constitutional constraints upon the legislature's ability to act, we find that the policy considerations found controlling in the challenge to the legislature's power to act under PELRA in Minnesota Education Association apply with equal force to the issue of legislative authority in the present context. Accordingly, we hold that the legislative enactment of the unpaid leave provision does not constitute an unfair labor practice under PELRA. Affirmed.