Court Opinion

ID: 9714265
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:33:59.485894+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:24.748395
License: Public Domain

OPINION OF THE COURT
Pigott, J.
Petitioner City of Long Beach (City) brought this CPLR article 75 proceeding to stay two arbitrations demanded by respondent Civil Service Employees Association, Inc. — Long Beach Unit (CSEA) on behalf of several terminated provisional employees. The central issue in this case is whether the subject claims are arbitrable under the terms of a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the parties. We conclude that they are not, and therefore affirm the Appellate Division order granting the City’s petition and permanently staying arbitration.
I.
In March 2004, the New York State Civil Service Commission issued a “Report on Merit System Administration for the City of Long Beach Civil Service Commission” that, among other things, admonished the City for its poor control over provisional appointments within the civil service system. In particular, the report noted that a number of competitive class positions had been improperly filled with and retained by provisional employees; at least one for as long as 19 years.
In response to the report, the City appointed a new Civil Service Commission that directed the City to address the issue. The City wrote to several employees occupying provisional appointments and informed them that, based upon a review of its records, there was reason to believe that they were serving in a provisional capacity beyond the statutorily prescribed time period. The employees were provided with an opportunity to meet with City officials to discuss their employment status prior to any final employment action. Following these meetings, the City determined that the continued employment of certain provisional employees violated applicable civil service laws and regulations and terminated them.
CSEA filed grievances on behalf of the terminated provisional employees, alleging that pursuant to the terms of the CBA, the *469employees were “tenured” and entitled to be rehired to another position. In its demands for arbitration, CSEA relied on the following tenure provisions found in article VI of the CBA:
“Section 6-1.0 — Definition of Tenure
“Employees with one (1) year of service in the annual employment of the City, regardless of classification, will be deemed tenured employees. This period of tenure is to be computed retroactively and only employees enumerated in Section 2-1.0 of this Agreement shall be deemed non-tenured.
“Section 6-1.1 — Rights of Tenured Employees
“All tenured employees will be protected from separation from employment with the City for any reason other than (a) voluntary withdrawal; (b) dismissal for disciplinary reasons after a hearing pursuant to Section 75 of the Civil Service Law; (c) provisional employees in the competitive class will be protected by tenure with the exception that their employment may be terminated pursuant to Civil Service Law should it be necessary pursuant to Civil Service Law to appoint a qualified candidate from a Civil Service eligible list to their position. In that event, the displaced provisional employee will be transferred by the City to another position in the City for which he/she qualifies, should such a position be open. A position will be deemed open if it was vacated within six (6) months of a tenured provisional employee’s displacement by a candidate from an eligible list certified by the Civil Service Commission.”
The City brought this action seeking to stay arbitration on public policy grounds. CSEA answered and cross-moved to compel arbitration.
Supreme Court granted the City’s petition, denied CSEA’s cross motion and permanently stayed arbitration. The court held that the contractual provisions for grievance and arbitration are not enforceable due to the provisional status of the employees. The Appellate Division affirmed the judgment, holding that “[b]ecause the provisions of the parties’ collective bargaining agreement upon which [CSEA] relies have the effect of limiting the [City’s] ability to discharge provisional employees, those provisions are against public policy and unenforceable as a mat*470ter of law” (29 AD3d 789, 790 [2d Dept 2006]). This Court granted leave.
II.
As a general rule, “public policy in this State favors arbitral resolution of public sector labor disputes” (Matter of Professional, Clerical, Tech. Empls. Assn. [Buffalo Bd. of Educ.], 90 NY2d 364, 372 [1997]). We have repeatedly held, however, that a dispute is not arbitrable when the subject matter of the dispute violates a statute, decisional law or public policy (see e.g. Matter of Patrolmen’s Benevolent Assn. of City of N.Y., Inc. v New York State Pub. Empl. Relations Bd., 6 NY3d 563 [2006]; Matter of City of New York v Uniformed Fire Officers Assn., Local 854, IAFF, AFL-CIO, 95 NY2d 273 [2000]). In this case, the subject dispute is not arbitrable because granting the relief sought on behalf of the provisional employees under the so-called “tenure” provisions of the CBA would violate the Civil Service Law and public policy.
Our State Constitution mandates that civil service appointments and promotions “shall be made according to merit and fitness to be ascertained, as far as practicable, by examination which, as far as practicable, shall be competitive” (NY Const, art V, § 6). “The purpose of this provision was to replace the spoils system with a system of merit selection and to protect the public as well as the individual employee” (Matter of Montero v Lum, 68 NY2d 253, 258 [1986]). This constitutional mandate “may not be blinked or avoided” (Matter of Board of Educ. of City of N.Y. v Nyquist, 31 NY2d 468, 472 [1973]). Even in instances where a competitive examination is not “practicable,” appointments to classified civil service positions outside the exempt and labor classes may be made only “after such noncompetitive examination as is prescribed by the state civil service department or municipal commission having jurisdiction” (Civil Service Law § 42 [1]).
“Although the constitutional merit and fitness provision has been recognized as ‘self-executing,’ the Legislature has enacted a number of statutes to implement the constitutional merit and fitness and competitive examination requirements” (Buffalo Bd. of Educ., 90 NY2d at 374 [citation omitted]). With respect to provisional appointments, the Civil Service Law authorizes such appointments only when there is no eligible list available for filling a vacancy in a competitive class, and then only for a maximum period of nine months (see Civil Service Law § 65 [1],
*471[2]). Once a provisional employee has been in a position for one month, the City must hold a civil service examination (see Civil Service Law § 65 [2]). Furthermore, any provisional appointment to a position must end within two months of the establishment of an appropriate eligible list, with only a narrowly defined exception applicable when termination would “disrupt or impair essential public services” (see Civil Service Law § 65 [3]), a provision not applicable here. Further, a provisional employee may be terminated “at any time without charges preferred, a statement of reasons given or a hearing held” (Matter of Preddice v Callanan, 69 NY2d 812, 814 [1987]). The statutory scheme contained in section 65 by its very terms prohibits any right of tenure to provisional employees. Properly construed, the Civil Service Law renders the provisions of the CBA upon which CSEA relies meaningless.
We have long held that appointments made pursuant to Civil Service Law § 65 carry no expectation nor right of tenure (see Montero, 68 NY2d 253 [1986]; Matter of Hilsenrad v Miller, 284 NY 445 [1940]; Koso v Greene, 260 NY 491 [1933]). Provisional employees,
“though in a sense holding positions in the competitive class, are, for reasons of necessity, exempt from the civil service requirements for appointment; and similarly, so long as they hold such positions, they are entitled to none of the advantages secured by period of tenure under the [Civil Service Law]” (Koso, 260 NY at 494).
Such appointments “are mere stop-gaps, exceptions of necessity to the general rules with respect to the filling of such positions” and “[w]hile such appointments may on occasion be succeeded by a permanent appointment, this may only be by virtue of examination and eligibility under the civil service laws, and not by reason of any ripening of the temporary or provisional appointment into a permanent appointment” (id. at 495).
CSEA relies on those portions of the CBA which provide that a provisional appointee is considered a tenured employee after one year of service. The Civil Service Law, however, clearly sets a time limitation on provisional appointments and that period is nine months. The City therefore cannot agree to provide superior rights to provisional employees holding positions beyond that statutory time period. Because the provisions under the CBA are unenforceable as a matter of law, we need not concern ourselves with the particular relief requested by CSEA, *472i.e. whether the provisional employees may be rehired to noncompetitive or competitive positions. A provisional employee cannot be entitled to any right of continued employment under the terms of this CBA, regardless of the nature of the requested position.
Policy considerations warrant strict compliance by employers with the time limitations imposed under the Civil Service Law. Such limitations are necessary to ensure adherence to the constitutional preference for merit selection. As illustrated in this case, an employer may sometimes abuse its authority to make provisional appointments and retain provisional employees far beyond their statutory purpose. In doing so, the employer fails to meet its obligation to render a competitive examination and create an eligible list within one month of a provisional appointment. Allowing parties to enter into agreements that give tenure rights to provisional employees who have served beyond the statutory time limit would only perpetuate this harm. The failure to administer timely examinations prevents the identification and hiring of qualified candidates from eligible lists, as required by the Civil Service Law, and misleads provisional appointees into having expectations of continued employment beyond that permitted by law.
We therefore conclude that the terms of the CBA that afford tenure rights to provisional employees after one year of service are contrary to statute and decisional law and therefore any relief pursuant to those terms may not be granted by an arbitrator. Accordingly, the order of the Appellate Division should be affirmed, with costs.