Opinion ID: 853378
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Teachers' claim against the Union

Text: At the heart of the parties' argument is the question of whether Teachers were required to file their complaint with the Indiana Education Employment Relations Board (IEERB) before they were entitled to judicial review. As the Court of Appeals noted, [i]f the Teachers were required to file their claims with the IEERB, the trial court's order was correct as [a] party's failure to exhaust its administrative remedies creates a jurisdictional defect and makes a T.R. 12(B)(1) motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction appropriate. Fratus, 721 N.E.2d at 285 (quotation omitted). The Certificated Educational Employee Bargaining Act (Act) recognizes the right of school employees to organize and collectively bargain through school employee associations. Ind.Code § 20-7.5-1-1(b). The Act creates a method to resolve unfair practices by both school employers and school employee organizations. To obtain relief from unfair practices, a school employee may file a complaint with the IEERB, [1] which then hears and decides the claim. I.C. § 20-7.5-1-11; Evansville-Vanderburgh Sch. Corp. v. Roberts, 464 N.E.2d 1315, 1317 (Ind.Ct.App.1984). Once the IEERB takes final action, a school employee may petition for judicial review. I.C. § 4-21.5-5-4, 5. In sum, a person may file a petition for judicial review only after exhausting all administrative remedies available within the agency authorized to exercise judicial review. I.C. § 4-21.5-5-4; Town Council of New Harmony v. Parker, 726 N.E.2d 1217, 1224 (Ind.2000), amended on reh'g in part by 737 N.E.2d 719 (Ind.2000); State Bd. of Tax Comm'rs v. Mixmill Mfg. Co., 702 N.E.2d 701, 704 (Ind.1998) (Administrative agencies have technical expertise in areas that the courts do not. [I]n nearly all circumstances their rulings are required before resort to a court is available.). Teachers contend they are not required to pursue this matter through the IEERB because the agency has no authority to adjudicate claims of a union's breach of duty of fair representation. In support, Teachers point out that the Act defines unfair practice and the definition does not include the breach of duty of fair representation. Teachers are correct that the Act does not specifically list the duty of fair representation as an unfair practice. If this were the end of the analysis, then we would be compelled to conclude that Teachers were not required first to pursue administrative remedies through the IEERB. However, the question of whether the breach of the duty of fair representation is an unfair practice is a case of first impression in Indiana. When interpreting an Indiana statute for the first time, it is appropriate to look to the decisions of other jurisdictions that construe identical statutory provisions. Bd. of Comm'rs of County of Knox v. Wyant, 672 N.E.2d 77, 79-80 (Ind.Ct.App.1996). The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) is the federal counterpart to the Act. The two are nearly identical with many parallel provisions and similar language. [2] We therefore look to federal case law for guidance. See Indiana Civ. Rights Comm'n v. County Line Park, 738 N.E.2d 1044, 1048 (Ind. 2000) (relying on federal case authority interpreting the federal Fair Housing Act as a guide to interpreting Indiana's Fair Housing Act). In 1935, Congress enacted the NLRA, which allows employees to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing. 29 U.S.C.A. § 157 (1998). Through its enactment, Congress intended to exercise whatever constitutional power given to it to regulate commerce by adopting measures to prevent or control specified unfair labor practices that provoke or tend to provoke strikes or labor disturbances affecting interstate commerce. NLRB v. Fainblatt, 306 U.S. 601, 607, 59 S.Ct. 668, 83 L.Ed. 1014 (1939). Congress defined what it meant by unfair labor practices and gave the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) authority to hear and decide such claims. 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 158(b), 160 (1998). Any person aggrieved by the NLRB's final order may seek judicial review. 29 U.S.C.A. § 160(f) (1998). Just as the Act does not include fair representation claims in its catalog of unfair practices by school employee organizations, the NLRA also does not specifically list it as an unfair practice by labor organizations. See 29 U.S.C.A. § 158(b) (1998). Nonetheless, federal case authority identifies such a breach by labor organizations as an unfair labor practice under NLRA. See Vaca v. Sipes, 386 U.S. 171, 177, 87 S.Ct. 903, 17 L.Ed.2d 842 (1967) (It is now well established that, as the exclusive bargaining representative of the employees in [complainant's] bargaining unit, the Union had a statutory duty fairly to represent all of those employees, both in its collective bargaining with [employer] and in its enforcement of the resulting bargaining agreement. (citations omitted) (emphasis added)). As one court explained: This fiduciary duty of fair representation in the negotiation, administration and enforcement of collective bargaining agreements has been imposed upon unions by federal law as an obligation correlative to the right of a union to represent all the employees in a bargaining unit as their exclusive bargaining agent despite the contrary wishes of a minority. . . . It has since been expanded as a principle of general application to collective bargaining representatives, who are required to serve the interest of all members without hostility or discrimination toward any, to exercise [their] discretion with complete good faith and honesty, and to avoid arbitrary conduct. Bazarte v. United Transp. Union, 429 F.2d 868, 871 (3d Cir.1970) (emphasis added). We agree with the rationale of the federal courts and conclude that a breach of the duty of fair representation by a school employee organization is an unfair labor practice under the Act. [3] Accordingly, Teachers' claim against the Union is a matter for exclusive IEERB determination. However, this does not mean that the trial court lacks jurisdiction over the entire case. Because another of Teachers' claims is within the trial court's jurisdiction, as explained in greater detail below, although the trial court must refer to the IEERB that portion of Teachers' complaint asserting claims against the Union, the trial court nonetheless retains jurisdiction over the entire case until the IEERB reaches a final decision. Thereafter the trial court may address all claims properly before it.