Court Opinion

ID: 9733788
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 17:17:21.586743+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:44.062207
License: Public Domain

Justice NIGRO,
concurring.
I agree with the majority’s application of the essence test here and write separately merely to emphasize that in my view, this Court’s decision in City of Easton v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, 562 Pa. 438, 756 A.2d 1107 (2000), did not wholly supplant the application of the essence test in cases in which a core function of a public employer has been implicated. Rather, as this court unanimously stated in Office of the Attorney General v. Council 13, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO, our decision in City of Easton “ ‘reaffirmed the deferential essence test,’ and simply ‘noted that this usual deference is tempered in a situation in which the arbitrator’s interpretation of the agreement led to the governmental employer relinquishing essential control over the public enterprise ....’ 844 A.2d 1217, 1225 (Pa.2004) (emphasis added); see also Maj. Op. at 13-14 (stating that ‘the usual degree of deference to be accorded to an arbitrator’s award is moderated’” in such situations) (emphasis added). Thus, like the majority here, I believe that the essence test remains applicable in cases such as this one, albeit in a slightly modified form.