Court Opinion

ID: 9674740
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:34:36.036417+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:29.486321
License: Public Domain

GARTZKE, P.J.
(dissenting). I dissent from the majority’s conclusion that WERC’s ruling on the fourth paragraph, relating to academic freedom and responsibility, has no rational basis. I do not join the majority’s dictum that employer-imposed discipline is primarily related to working conditions and is therefore mandatorily bargainable.
The “primarily related” test established in Beloit Education Asso. v. WERC, 73 Wis. 2d 43, 242 N.W.2d 231 (1976), means that where “the governmental or policy dimensions of a decision 'predominate, the matter is properly reserved to decision by the representatives of the people.” Unified S.D. No. 1 of Racine County v. WERC, 81 Wis. 2d 89, 102, 259 N.W.2d 724, 732 (1977) (emphasis added). The school board is that representative.
Our permissible review of WERC’s ruling is limited to whether that agency had a rational basis for its decision. That standard requires us to affirm a rational ruling, whether or not we would have made the same ruling. It is therefore immaterial that we are capable of providing a rational basis for a contrary ruling.
*444WERC had a rational basis for its decision. WERC said in the memorandum opinion accompanying its findings of fact, conclusions and ruling:
While paragraph 4 involves employe discipline, it seeks to protect rights of teachers as citizens, rather than the protection of rights of teachers as employes. Enforcement of constitutional rights of citizens are properly sought in the courts, rather than in forums established to resolve disputes relating to the enforcement of collective bargaining agreements. Since paragraph 4 only peripherally relates to working conditions (discipline), it, as written, relates to a non-mandatory subject of bargaining.
The majority of this court have also provided a rational basis for holding that the paragraph primarily relates to teachers’ conditions of employment. That is not the point. As appellate judges we must affirm WERC’s ruling because it has a rational basis.
The majority’s dictum — that employer-imposed discipline “is primarily related to a teacher’s conditions of employment” — may be thought to usurp WERC’s function in the future. Merely connecting a proposal with discipline cannot, of itself, make the proposal primarily related to employment conditions. Discipline is imposed for a reason. The reason originates in management policy. School management is the school board’s province under sec. 111.70(1) (d), Stats. Accordingly, employer-imposed discipline relates both to employment conditions and to school management. Whether a particular provision connected with discipline relates primarily to one area and peripherally to another area is debatable. WERC ought not be precluded by a dictum from deciding which area is predominantly affected.