Opinion ID: 2210522
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Whether the June 4, 1985, Executive Order is Violative of Section 3(2) of Senate File 2359.

Text: Defendants contend that the June 4, 1985, executive order adjusting comparable worth upgrades for employees not members of collective bargaining units does not contravene any employee wage entitlement conferred under section 3(2) of Senate File 2359. The relevant language of section 3 reads as follows: Sec. 3. NONCONTRACTUAL EMPLOYEES. For noncontractual employees under the state merit system, the following implementation schedule applies for the initial phase of comparable worth adjustments: 1. In implementing the first phase of comparable worth adjustments, employees in job titles whose current pay grade is below the comparable worth pay grade shall be adjusted upward to their comparable worth pay grade. However, no job titles shall be raised above pay grade thirty-two under the initial implementation process. This implementation shall only be done after completion of the review process. 2. In implementing the first phase of comparable worth adjustments, employees whose pay grades will be increased shall retain their merit step positions when those adjustments are made. 1984 Iowa Acts ch. 1314, § 3 (emphasis added). Defendants argue that section 3(2) is inapplicable to professional and managerial employees such as plaintiffs because these plaintiffs do not have established merit step positions in their respective pay plans. Defendants point out that under Department of Personnel rules steps within a pay grade denote fixed salary levels to which employees are automatically moved upon attaining established criteria. See 581 Iowa Admin. Code 4.5(2)(b)(1). Defendants urge that, in 1981 Iowa Acts chapter 9, section 19(4), the legislature eliminated fixed salary steps within pay grades for all professional and managerial class employees. This category of employees now receives in-grade pay raises at the discretion of their respective supervisors. Defendants contend that, because merit step positions did not exist for employees in plaintiffs' category at the time Senate File 2359 was enacted, the language of section 3(2) requiring that merit steps be retained is inapplicable to these employees. We detect two flaws in defendants' argument. The first flaw lies in the fact that the challenged executive order itself speaks of steps, both in denoting that which the Department of Personnel had done in implementing comparable worth for employees such as plaintiffs and in describing the downward adjustments which the executive order was making to those employees' salaries. Under the interpretation which defendants are now advocating, it would have been impossible for Executive Department employees to carry out the June 4, 1985, executive order as there would have been no recognizable pay levels within a pay grade to which employees could be dropped in keeping with the proposed downward adjustments. A second and more fundamental flaw in defendants' argument lies in the fact that the interpretation which they propose is manifestly inappropriate when considered in context. Under defendants' proffered interpretation of section 3(2), the only category of employees which would have merit step positions would be those employees for which collective bargaining agreements have been negotiated and are in effect; [2] this is not the category of employees to which section 3(2) is specifically directed. All of section 3 of the act deals exclusively with comparable worth implementation for employees who were not subject to collective bargaining agreements. 1984 Iowa Acts ch. 1314, § 3. The implementation of comparable worth for employees who were subject to collective bargaining agreements was separately dealt with both as to procedure and funding in section 4 of Senate File 2359. [3] 1984 Iowa Acts ch. 1314, § 4. We are unwilling to attribute a meaning to the phrase merit step positions in section 3(2) which would render that section meaningless as to the only category of employees to which it applies. We have consistently recognized that the legislature should be presumed to have enacted each part of a statute for a purpose and to have intended that each part be given effect. Sioux City Community School Dist. v. Iowa State Bd. of Pub. Instruction, 402 N.W.2d 739, 742 (Iowa 1987); Iowa Dep't of Transp. v. Nebraska-Iowa Supply Co., 272 N.W.2d 6, 11 (Iowa 1978). We have also recognized that statutory words and phrases are ordinarily to be construed according to their context. Kearney v. Ahmann, 264 N.W.2d 768, 769-70 (Iowa 1978). In interpreting statutes, we must take account of the object sought to be accomplished, the problems sought to be remedied, and arrive at an interpretation which will best effect those objectives. AFSCME/Iowa Council 61 v. Iowa Dep't of Pub. Safety, 434 N.W.2d 401, 404 (Iowa 1988); Shidler v. All Am. Life & Fin. Corp., 298 N.W.2d 318, 321 (Iowa 1980). Applying this principle to the present dispute, we believe that the phrase merit step positions as utilized in section 3(2) of Senate File 2359 merely denotes the relative pay level of an employee within a pay grade. We believe it was the intent of the legislature in enacting section 3 of Senate File 2359 that, wherever noncontractual employees such as these plaintiffs were located in the pay matrix immediately prior to comparable worth adjustments, this relative in-grade pay level was to be maintained in the newly assigned pay grade. The purpose of this provision was to assure that individual employees would maintain the benefit of merit pay raises previously received in relation to the pay standing of other employees who perhaps had not received such rewards for meritorious performance. Based on our interpretation of the issues presented, we hold the district court did not err in sustaining plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment and denying defendants' cross-motion for summary judgment. We affirm that ruling. We modify the district court's order of November 17, 1988, by directing that the Iowa Nurses' Association be dismissed from the case as a party plaintiff. Otherwise, that order is also affirmed. All costs on appeal shall be assessed against appellants. AFFIRMED AS MODIFIED AND REMANDED.