Opinion ID: 2108792
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Failure to Treat Employees as Members of the Unit

Text: The Board found that as a result of the unit clarification decision the city was obligated to treat the four employees who were fired on October 26, 1979, as permanent employees. Instead of doing so, the city fired them. The Board further found that, when two of the four employees were rehired they were not afforded the benefits and wages to which they were entitled as members of the unit. Each received the salary of a new permanent employee and was placed at the bottom of the seniority list, contrary to the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement which detailed the appropriate pay scale for employees based on duration of employment and subject to a performance rating and a recommendation from the Operations Maintenance Director. According to the Board, this action was a violation of section 964(1)(A) and (B) because the unit clarification decision required the city to provide retroactive benefits to the four employees since they had been employed for more than six months. The Superior Court, in reviewing this decision of the Board, determined that the unit clarification decision was not nearly as expansive as the Board had concluded in the prohibited practice case. The court held that the decision did not require the city to award back pay and benefits based on the date of original hire and that the city therefore had not committed a prohibited practice by failing to treat the employees as if they had been members of the unit prior to the date the decision was received by the city, October 19, 1979. The appellees, the AFSCME and the MLRB, have cross-appealed from this part of the Superior Court decision, claiming that the court misconstrued the Board's decision. The appellees further argue that since in a unit clarification case the Board has no power to order back pay, reinstatement, or retroactive benefits, the court's reliance on the absence of such a remedial order as authority for finding that there was no violation was entirely unfounded. We disagree with the Superior Court's analysis of the Board's decision on this section 964(1)(A) and (B) violation. Even assuming that the court's interpretation of the unit clarification decision was correct, the Board's finding of a violation still stands since the city was obligated to treat these employees as members of the unit as of October 19, 1979 and failed to do so. Whether the city should have provided the employees with benefits as of their original date of permanent hire or as of October 19, 1979, is irrelevant in deciding whether a violation occurred since under either scenario the city should have provided all four employees with union benefits. We find that the Superior Court erred in reversing the Board's finding that the city had violated section 964(1)(A) and (B) by failing to treat the seasonal laborers who had been employed for more than six months as members of the bargaining unit.