Opinion ID: 2042994
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Res Judicata Effect of the PERB Ruling.

Text: The county and the AFSCME Local contend that the declaratory ruling issued by PERB precluded the Commission from hearing Hill's complaint. They urge, citing City of Des Moines v. Iowa Civil Rights Commission, 343 N.W.2d 836 (Iowa 1984), that PERB's ruling is entitled to res judicata effect. While it is true that a final adjudicatory decision of an administrative agency is entitled to res judicata effect as if it were a judgment of a court, id., it is also true that for issue preclusion or res judicata to apply, the issue litigated must be identical to the issue raised in the previous action. Amro v. Iowa Dist. Court, 429 N.W.2d 135, 140 (Iowa 1988). PERB's ruling, issued January 31, 1986, held that the election of remedies clause in this case was a legal permissive subject of bargaining within the meaning of section 9 of the Public Employment Relations Act, Iowa Code section 20.9. The issue before the Commission, however, was not the legality of the clause under chapter 20, but rather whether the clause constituted discrimination under chapter 601A. This is not the same issue as the one which was before PERB. While part of PERB's inquiry involved determining whether the clause was legally prohibited, this is a much broader question than the one faced by the Commission. There are circumstances in which the clause could come into play where the concerns of chapter 601A would not be implicated. For example, among other things, the agreement protects employees from discrimination on the basis of marital status and partisan political affiliation. Neither of these classifications is protected by chapter 601A. Therefore, chapter 601A is not a barrier to the arbitration of grievances which are based on discrimination on those grounds. Nor would chapter 601A, under such circumstances, permit the Commission to contradict PERB's ruling that the election of remedies clause was legal. The issue before the Commission, however, was not whether, in general terms, the election of remedies clause was legal. The issue was whether, in the context of race, the agreement's purported forfeiture of Hill's arbitration rights constituted a discriminatory practice. Because the issues before the two agencies were not the same, the Commission was not precluded from proceeding as it did.