Court Opinion

ID: 9641523
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:33:51.757453+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:38.130367
License: Public Domain

POMEROY, Justice,
concurring.
I concur in the Court’s holding that the Cumberland Valley School District (“School District” or “District”) committed an unfair labor practice under Section 1201(a)(5) of the Public Employe Relations Act1 (“PERA” or “the Act”) by eliminating through unilateral action of its own all medical and life insurance benefits and tuition cost reimbursements to its employees. I cannot, however, agree that the School District violated Section 1201(a)(1), 43 P.S. § 1101.-1201(a)(1), nor can I assent to the majority’s wholesale *148importation of federal interpretive case law in the private sector under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) in deciding this public sector case under the Pennsylvania statute.
The majority finds that the District’s action constitutes a refusal to bargain in good faith under both Sections 1201(a)(1) and 1201(a)(5) of PERA. Opinion of the Court, ante at 949, citing Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board v. Mars Area School District, 480 Pa. 295, 389 A.2d 1073 (1978). As in Mars, I agree that the District violated PERA for “[rjefusing to bargain collectively in good faith,” see the PERA, 43 P.S. § 1101.1201(a)(5), but I cannot see how the District was guilty of “[interfering, restraining or coercing employees in the exercise of their rights guaranteed in Article IV” of PERA. See the PERA, 43 P.S. § 1101.-1201(a)(1). What I said in a separate opinion in Mars applies equally in the instant case, viz., that subsection (1) of 1201(a) of the Act is directed primarily at frustration by a public employer of union organizing efforts rather than at employer refusal to bargain.2 480 Pa. 309, 389 A.2d at 1080 (concurring and dissenting opinion of Pomeroy, J.). While I believe that the employer did not bargain in good faith, for reasons expressed below I remain unconvinced that it is necessary to embellish this finding with a finding of “interference, restraint, or coercion,” none of which apparently exists here.
In deciding this case the Court once again retreats from its found determination in the leading case of Pennsylvania *149Labor Relations Board v. State College Area School District, 461 Pa. 494, 337 A.2d 262 (1975), where we said that although federal decisions may provide some guidance, “it does not necessarily follow that federal precedent relating to private employment is particularly helpful in resolving difficulties in the public sector.” 461 Pa. at 499, 337 A.2d at 264. The Court in State College also observed:
“[W]e are mindful of the distinctions that necessarily must exist between legislation primarily directed to the private sector and that for public employes. The distinction between the public and private sector cannot be minimized. Employers in the private sector are motivated by the profit to be returned from the enterprise whereas public employers are custodians of public funds and mandated to perform governmental functions as economically and effectively as possible. The employer in the private sector is constrained only by investors who are most concerned with the return for their investment whereas the public employer must adhere to the statutory enactments which control the operation of the enterprise. We emphasize that we are not suggesting that the experience gained in the private sector is of no value here, rather we are stressing that analogies have limited application and the experiences gained in the private employment sector will not necessarily provide an infallible basis for a monolithic model for public employment.” 461 Pa. at 499-500, 337 A.2d at 264 (footnote omitted).
The cautious approach of State College seems now to have been abandoned in favor of a more expansive doctrine expressed by NLRB v. Katz, 369 U.S. 736, 744, 82 S.Ct. 1107, 1112, 8 L.Ed.2d 230, 236, Borden, Inc. v. NLRB, 196 NLRB No. 172, 80 LRRM 1240 (1972), and other cases decided under the NLRA. The ultimate effect could very well be the swallowing up of the special and distinctive character of the PERA by a larger body of law developed under a statute which is not at all concerned with the delicate problems which inhere in labor relations where the employer is a public body. This is an effect that is neither desirable nor intended by the legislature.
*150I believe that an unfair labor practice was committed here under PERA for the sole reason that the employer violated Section 1201(a)(5). The District appears to me to have acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner vis-á-vis its employees when it cut off all benefits at the expiration of the existing contract without following the mandated procedure prescribed by the Act.3 The PERA sets forth in clear language necessary steps required to establish an “impasse.” 4 Section 801 of the PERA, supra note 4, 43 P.S. § 1101.801, provides that as a first step the parties must request the services of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Mediation; this event must *151occur no later than 150 days prior to the “budget submission date.”5 According to the School District’s own calculation, mediation should have been requested no later than January 31, 1978. Section 802 of the PERA, supra note 4, 43 P.S. § 1101.802, further requires that if an agreement is not reached by 130 days prior to the “budget submission date” the Bureau of Mediation must notify the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, which, at its discretion, may institute a process known as “fact-finding.” See note 4, supra. This stage apparently could have been reached well before the expiration of the 1973 — 1975 collective bargaining agreement.
The above described processes are designed to facilitate an accord, and comport with the policy of the Act to “promote orderly and constructive relationships between all public employers and their employees.” 43 P.S. § 1101.101. The District circumvented the procedural safeguards of the PERA by continuing negotiations which had been commenced before the contract expiration date, and then without warning terminating the benefits the prior contract afforded. The District urges that “the union shares equally with the employer the responsibility for instituting media*152tion.” (District brief at 16). This position, while technically correct, see note 4, supra, does not remove the District’s responsibility to bring the negotiations process to an “impasse” before cutting off benefits. Utilization and exhaustion of the mediation and fact finding stages contemplated by the Act are a prerequisite to the right to strike. See Section 1003 of PERA, 43 P.S. § 1101.1003.6 This statutory precondition must equally apply to the right to terminate benefits following the expiration of a collective bargaining agreement. The District’s action in violation of Sections 801 and 802 subverted the orderly collective bargaining process and as such constituted a transgression under Section 1201(a)(5).

. Act of July 23, 1970, P.L. 563, No. 195, art. XII, § 1201(a)(5), 43 P.S. § 1101.1201(a)(5) (Supp.1978).

. A finding of a violation of Section 1201(a)(1) necessarily requires a finding of interference with or restraint or coercion of employees in the exercise of their rights guaranteed by Section 401 of PERA, 43 P.S. § 1101.401. That section is the “employe rights” provision of the statute, and provides as follows:
“It shall be lawful for public employes to organize, form, join or assist in employee organizations or to engage in lawful concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid and protection or to bargain collectively through representatives of their own free choice and such employes shall also have the right to refrain from any or all such activities, except as may be required pursuant to a maintenance of membership provision in a collective bargaining agreement.”

. The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board advances the following argument in its brief at p. 27:
“[0]nly after impasse procedures may a public employer or public employes take unilateral action such as a lockout, a strike, or unilateral termination of employe fringe benefits. This rule has been in essence adopted by the New York Court of Appeals in Board of Cooperative Educational Services of Rockland County v. Public Employment Relations Board, 41 N.Y.2d 753 [395 N.Y.S.2d 439], 363 N.E.2d 1174 (1977).” (Emphasis in original). See n. 4, infra.

. Article VIII of PERA reads in pertinent part:
“COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IMPASSE
§ 1101.801 Submission to mediation
If after a reasonable period of negotiation, a dispute or impasse exists between the representatives of the public employer and the public employes, the parties may voluntarily submit to mediation but if no agreement is reached between the parties within twenty-one days after negotiations have commenced, but in no event later than one hundred fifty days prior to the ‘budget submission date,’ and mediation has not been utilized by the parties, both parties shall immediately, in writing, call in the service of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Mediation.
§ 1101.802 Fact-finding panels
Once mediation has commenced, it shall continue for so long as the parties have not reached an agreement. If, however, an agreement has not been reached within twenty days after mediation has commenced or in no event later than one hundred thirty days prior to the ‘budget submission date,’ the Bureau of Mediation shall notify the board of this fact. Upon receiving such notice the board may in its discretion appoint a fact-finding panel which panel may consist of either one or three members. If a panel is so designated or selected it shall hold hearings and take oral or written testimony and shall have subpoena power. If during this time the parties have not reached an agreement, the panel shall make findings of fact and recommendations:
*151(1) The findings of fact and recommendations shall be sent by registered mail to the board and to both parties not more them forty days after the Bureau of Mediation has notified the board as provided in the preceding paragraph.
(2) Not more than ten days after the .findings and recommendations shall have been sent, the parties shall notify the board and each other whether or not they accept the recommendations of the fact-finding panel and if they do not, the panel shall publicize its findings of fact and recommendations.
(3) Not less than five days nor more than ten days after the publication of the findings of fact and recommendations, the parties shall again inform the board and each other whether or not they will accept the recommendations of the fact-finding panel.”

. The “budget submission date” is defined by Section 301(12) of the PERA as follows: “the date by which under the law or practice a public employer’s proposed budget, or budget containing proposed expenditures applicable to such public employer is submitted to the Legislature or other similar body for final action. For the purposes of this act, the budget submission date for the Commonwealth shall be February 1 of each year and for a nonprofit organization or institution, the last day of its fiscal year.” In the instant case, involving a school district, the budget submission date was June 30, 1975.

. Section 1003 of PERA reads in pertinent part:
“[A] strike by public employes occurs after the collective bargaining processes set forth in sections 801 and 802 of Article VII of this act have been completely utilized and exhausted . . . .”