Opinion ID: 2065544
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: The trial justice made two separate findings concerning the court's jurisdiction over plaintiffs' claims. First, at a hearing exclusively dealing with the court's subject-matter jurisdiction, the trial justice found that the Superior Court had jurisdiction to determine the appropriate amount of plaintiffs' COLA benefit. Despite this finding, approximately eight months after the Superior Court rendered its jurisdiction decision, an interest arbitration panel (panel) was convened at the request of the IAFF and the city pursuant to the provisions of the FFAA. The panel was charged only with determining the proper COLA benefit for the firefighters in Group 3 who retired during the first year of the non-ratified 1992-95 fire CBA. [9] After weighing the evidence the city and the IAFF presented, the panel rendered a decision on April 4, 2005, resolving the COLA controversy for firefighters who retired between July 1, 1992, and June 30, 1993. Although fully aware that the Superior Court previously had held it had subject-matter jurisdiction over the COLA controversy, defendants argued at the hearing in the Superior Court that the trial justice should defer to the arbitration panel's decision for resolving plaintiffs' claims. The trial justice instead held that the Superior Court had exclusive jurisdiction over plaintiffs' claims and explicitly rejected the arbitration panel's authority to determine benefits for already-retired firefighters without their consent. The defendants' first argument on appeal is that the Superior Court was without subject-matter jurisdiction to determine plaintiffs' appropriate COLA benefits because the FFAA is the controlling statutory authority for determining unresolved collective-bargaining issues. Additionally, defendants argue that the trial justice erred in finding that the panel's decision had no bearing on the instant controversy. For the reasons that follow, we agree with the trial justice that, under the facts and circumstances of this case, the Superior Court had exclusive subject-matter jurisdiction over plaintiffs' claims and that the arbitration panel's award has no bearing on the determination of plaintiffs' COLA benefits. The FFAA makes available interest arbitration procedures to designated fire fighters    of any city or town. Providence Lodge No. 3, FOP v. City of Providence, 730 A.2d 17, 20 (R.I.1999). Interest arbitration panels have the authority to determine conditions of employment, including the provisions of an employee pension plan. Fraternal Order of Police, Westerly Lodge No. 10 v. Town of Westerly, 659 A.2d 1104, 1105 (R.I.1995) ( Westerly Lodge No. 10 ). Accordingly, the FFAA grants arbitration panels the power to render decisions amending current firefighters' pension plans. Id. In the instant case, defendants suggest that an arbitration panel's authority may extend beyond the determination of pension benefits for current employees to include determination of the rights of former employees who already have retired. The defendants argue that City of East Providence v. Local 850, International Association of Firefighters, AFL-CIO, 117 R.I. 329, 366 A.2d 1151 (1976) ( Local 850 ), and Lime Rock Fire District v. Rhode Island State Labor Relations Board, 673 A.2d 51 (R.I.1996) ( Lime Rock Fire District ), should guide our analysis of this jurisdictional issue. The defendants attempt to apply our holdings in Local 850 and Lime Rock Fire District to the facts of this case to support their contention that the statutory provisions of the FFAA provide the exclusive administrative remedy for firefighter unions to have unresolved issues in collective bargaining heard and to receive a binding decision regarding those issues. In Local 850, this Court took an exacting look at the public policy underlying the FFAA's enactment and held that an arbitration panel under the FFAA has the authority to render a binding decision involving unresolved collective bargaining issues that the parties submit to arbitration, including those dealing with employee pensions. Local 850, 117 R.I. at 339, 366 A.2d at 1156. Twenty years later, in Lime Rock Fire District, we again analyzed the public policy underlying the FFAA's enactment and held that a union subject to the FFAA must exhaust its statutory remedy  mandatory arbitration  before filing an unfair labor practices claim with the State Labor Relations Board (SLRB) because the specific mechanism for resolving disputes under the FFAA is through arbitration. Lime Rock Fire District, 673 A.2d at 54. In our opinion, this Court's holdings in Local 850 and Lime Rock Fire District are inapposite when answering the jurisdictional question specifically presented here. We first note that defendants' argument is premised on inaccurate presumptions. Under the specific facts of this case, it is clear that plaintiffs are not unions, nor are they members of or represented by unions. In addition, plaintiffs are not currently engaged in collective bargaining. The plaintiffs in this case, unlike those in Local 850 and Lime Rock Fire District, are retired firefighters seeking a declaration of their existing rights. Therefore, the FFAA does not apply to plaintiffs' claim. We additionally find persuasive plaintiffs' argument that retirees, at least in situations such as the one now before us, cannot be treated as employees, as supported by the United States Supreme Court's sound reasoning in Allied Chemical & Alkali Workers of America, Local Union No. 1 v. Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co., 404 U.S. 157, 92 S.Ct. 383, 30 L.Ed.2d 341 (1971) ( Allied Chemical ). [10] In Allied Chemical, the Court held that the term employees does not include retirees for the purposes of the National Labor Relations Act (act) for a number of reasons. See id. at 166, 92 S.Ct. 383. First, the ordinary meaning of the word employee does not include retired workers because retirees have ceased to work for another for hire. Id. at 168, 92 S.Ct. 383. Second, the act applies only to active workers because the act's purpose was not to prevent retirees from disrupting commerce, but instead was to create a mutual obligation for active workers and their employers to bargain collectively to avoid work disruptions. Id. at 163-64, 92 S.Ct. 383. Third, employees and retirees do not share a community of interests, thereby creating a danger that active employees will bargain for better conditions at the expense of retirees' benefits. Id. at 173, 92 S.Ct. 383. All of these concerns are particularly significant in the present case. The ordinary meaning of firefighter and the definition included in the FFAA cannot reasonably be construed to include retirees. The FFAA defines firefighter as the permanent uniformed members, rescue service personnel of any city or town, emergency medical services personnel of any city or town, any fire dispatchers of any city or town, and all employees with the exception of fire chiefs of any paid fire department in any city or town within the state. Section 28-9.1-3(2). Retired firefighters, like plaintiffs, no longer are permanent uniformed members of the fire department. Furthermore, the sound public policy underlying the FFAA's enactment does not apply to retirees in the same compelling way that it applies to current employees. The FFAA specifically states that it is the public policy of this state to accord to the permanent uniformed members, rescue service personnel of any city or town, emergency medical services personnel of any city or town, and all employees of any paid fire department in any city or town all of the rights of labor other than the right to strike or engage in any work stoppage or slowdown. To provide for the exercise of these rights, a method of arbitration of disputes is established. Section 28-9.1-2(b). This policy is based on a recognition of the necessity to provide some alternative mode of settling disputes where employees must, as a matter of public policy, be denied the usual right to strike. § 28-9.1-2(c). Under the facts of this case, there is absolutely no possibility that plaintiffs can or will strike or engage in a work stoppage or slowdown to pressure the city to comply with their COLA demands. Moreover, no plaintiff is a permanent uniformed member of the fire department who requires a method of arbitration to compensate him or her for the elimination of the right to strike. The dangers against which the FFAA protects are simply not present with regard to retirees. Finally, because retirees and current employees of the fire department do not share a community of interests with respect to plaintiffs' COLA benefits  in fact, the interest arbitration advocated for here would have absolutely no effect on any current union member  the same danger that existed in Allied Chemical exists here; the IAFF and the city could conceivably come to an agreement that would adversely affect plaintiffs to benefit current fire department employees. Thus, we are persuaded that the term firefighter in the FFAA does not and cannot include retirees. It should also be noted that defendants' argument that the trial justice erroneously relied on Allied Chemical in light of Westerly Lodge No. 10, is without merit because Westerly Lodge No. 10 is factually distinguishable from the present case in a number of significant ways. The interest arbitration panel in Westerly Lodge No. 10 was convened to decide unresolved collective-bargaining issues that affected current police officers. Westerly Lodge No. 10, 659 A.2d at 1105. The panel issued a pension escalator to be awarded to those employees retiring while the CBA was in effect and made it retroactive fifty-seven days so that police officers who had retired between the effective date of the new contract and the date of the decision would also receive the benefit. Id. By contrast, the only issue for an arbitration panel to decide in this case concerns already-retired firefighters' COLA benefits. Here, plaintiffs received pension benefits for a number of years before an issue arose over their COLA, distinguishing their situation from that of police officers whose union submitted a number of issues to arbitration before they had retired and were guaranteed the benefits negotiated during the arbitration, although the decision was issued after their official date of retirement. Accordingly, none of the dangers highlighted in Allied Chemical and discussed supra were implicated in Westerly Lodge No. 10. After considering the specific facts of this case, we hold that plaintiff retirees cannot be subject to the FFAA's mandates. As such, we conclude that the Superior Court had exclusive jurisdiction to determine the appropriate amount of plaintiffs' COLA benefits and that the interest arbitration panel decision issued on April 4, 2005, has no bearing on the instant controversy. [11]