Court Opinion

ID: 9729727
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 14:47:33.692462+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:00.783046
License: Public Domain

POMEROY, Justice,
dissenting.
I must respectfully dissent. The Court’s decision today, holding that a school district may agree to submit to binding arbitration the propriety of suspending a professional employee, relies heavily upon this Court’s prior decisions in Board of Education v. Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, Local No. 3, 464 Pa. 92, 346 A.2d 35 (1975), and Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board v. State College Area School District, 461 Pa. 494, 337 A.2d 262 (1975). In the former case I dissented and in the latter I disagreed with a portion of the opinion relied upon in the instant case. I continue to adhere to the views I expressed in those cases.1
In my opinion, the majority continues to perpetuate an unwarranted distortion of the plain language of section 703 of the Public Employe Relations Act, Act of July 23, 1970, P.L. 563, No. 195, 43 P.S. § 1101.101 et seq. (Supp. *4931976) , when it repeats that part'of the State College opinion holding that “items bargainable under section 701 are only excluded under section 703 where other applicable statutory provisions explictly and definitively prohibit the public employer from making an agreement as to that specific term or condition of employment.” Opinion of the Court, ante at 696, quoting State College, supra 461 Pa. at 510, 337 A.2d at 270. I am also of the view that today’s holding sanctions, as did the holding in Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, an impermissible surrender of a school board’s prerogatives under the School Code. See sections 1124 & 1125 of the School Code, Act of March 10, 1949, P.L. 30, art. XI, §§ 1124 & 1125, as amended, 24 P.S. §§ 11-1124 & 11-1125 (Supp.1976-1977) . Accordingly, for the reasons set forth in my separate opinions in Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and State College, see note 1, supra, I dissent.