Court Opinion

ID: 9518207
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 00:47:14.508542+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:27:47.838900
License: Public Domain

ZAPPALA, Justice,
concurring.
I concur solely in the result reached by the majority. One does not need to look beyond the clear and unambiguous language of Act 205 to conclude that municipalities have the authority to establish a revised benefit plan for newly hired employees without engaging in collective bargaining. Act 205 provides in pertinent part as follows:
... The municipality may establish a revised benefit plan of the pension plan applicable to any employee first hired on or after the effective date of the instrument establishing the revised benefit plan---- A revised benefit plan for newly hired municipal employees shall be developed with consultation with representatives of the collective bargaining unit applicable to the affected type of municipal employee, if any, and shall be within the scope of collective bargaining pursuant to the applicable law subsequent to the establishment of the revised benefit plan.
53 P.S. § 895.607(e).
This section expresses a clear legislative intent to require collective bargaining after the implementation of the revised *543pension benefit plan. To establish the initial revised benefit plan, however, the City is only required to engage in “consultation with the representatives of the collective bargaining unit.” Mandating collective bargaining for the establishment of a revised plan would render the last phrase of the section mere surplusage. We presume that the General Assembly intends the entire statute to be effective and certain. 1 Pa.C.S. § 1922(a). Thus, on the basis of the language of Act 205 alone, the City was authorized to implement the revised plan since it met with AFSCME representatives prior to the plan’s adoption.
We must keep in mind that the purpose of Act 205 was to establish a recovery program for municipal pension systems determined to be financially distressed. Although pensions are generally bargainable, the legislature drafted Act 205 to remove the implementation of a revised financially distressed pension plan from the bargaining table.
In sum, I would reverse the order of the Commonwealth Court solely on the basis of the language of Act 205.