Opinion ID: 2057049
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: certificated employee and member of bargaining unit

Text: The District argues that Manning was not a member of the bargaining unit, because she was hired as a long-term substitute teacher and not as a regular certificated employee. The District relies on the statutory definition of a certificated employee to argue that substitute teachers are not certificated. This reliance is without merit. Neb. Rev.Stat. § 79-824(1) (Reissue 2008) provides that certificated employees are all teachers and administrators as defined in Neb.Rev.Stat. § 79-101 (Reissue 2008), other than substitute teachers. Section 79-101(9) defines a teacher as any certified employee who is regularly employed for the instruction of pupils in the public schools. Neb.Rev.Stat. § 79-902(38) (Reissue 2008), which provides definitions for the school employees' retirement systems, states that a [s]ubstitute employee is a person hired by a public school as a temporary employee on an intermittent basis to assume the duties of regular employees due to the temporary absence of the regular employees. Manning was not hired due to the temporary absence of a regular employee. The CIR found that in hiring Manning, the District deviated from its previous practices. Administrators who testified could not recall an instance in the previous 24 years that the District had hired a teacher at the beginning of the school year as a long-term substitute when the teacher was not actually fulfilling the duties of another staff member who was on a leave of absence. Of the 34 new teachers hired for the 2007-08 school year, Manning was the only teacher not issued a teacher's contract. All other new teachers were compensated based on the Agreement. Manning did not receive fringe benefits, life insurance, personal leave benefits, or sick leave that was provided to the other teachers. The District attempted to treat her as a substitute teacher even though she was not taking the place of a teacher who planned to return. The CIR correctly determined that Manning was a member of the bargaining unit. As a member of the bargaining unit, she was entitled to be paid under the salary schedule, and thus, paying her on a different basis was a unilateral deviation from the economic terms in the Agreement. A teacher who is hired to fill an open position is not a substitute employee. The District therefore arbitrarily designated Manning as a long-term substitute. To allow the District to designate her as such would, as the CIR so determined, allow the District to unilaterally control the composition of the bargaining unit. We also find no merit to the argument that Manning was employed less than one-half time because she served only 83.5 days out of a total of 188 teacher service days in 2007-08. See brief for appellant at 16. Manning was not hired to assume the duties of an employee who was temporarily absent. Her predecessor resigned from the position. The District unilaterally decided to end Manning's employment in December after she taught nearly every day of the first semester. The authority of the Association and its rights would be undermined if the District were allowed to unilaterally designate probationary teachers as long-term substitutes. The District's designation of Manning as a long-term substitute had the effect of unilaterally removing her from the bargaining unit. The CIR correctly concluded that Manning was not a long-term substitute, but performed as a probationary certificated employee and was therefore a member of the bargaining unit. The act of unilaterally paying Manning on a basis other than as provided in the Agreement and without bargaining with the Association about such a change was a violation of § 48-824. Any order or decision of the CIR may be modified, reversed, or set aside by an appellate court on one or more of the following grounds and no other: (1) if the CIR acts without or in excess of its powers, (2) if the order was procured by fraud or is contrary to law, (3) if the facts found by the CIR do not support the order, and (4) if the order is not supported by a preponderance of the competent evidence on the record considered as a whole. Omaha Police Union Local 101 v. City of Omaha, 276 Neb. 983, 759 N.W.2d 82 (2009). The CIR acted within its powers when it exercised jurisdiction to determine whether the District had committed a prohibited practice. The CIR found that the District had implemented unilateral deviations from the Agreement, including compensation provisions. It ordered the District to reimburse Manning backpay equal to the difference between the amount received for her bargaining unit duties and the amount to which she would have been entitled under the Agreement. The CIR's order was not procured by fraud and is not contrary to law. The order of the CIR is supported by a preponderance of the evidence on the record.