Court Opinion

ID: 9785247
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 21:12:06.760906+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:13.608931
License: Public Domain

Chief Justice RABNER,
dissenting.
This Court has held on many occasions that an arbitrator’s award will be confirmed as long as it is “reasonably debatable.” See, e.g., Linden Bd. of Educ. v. Linden Educ. Ass’n, 202 N.J. 268, 276, 997 A.2d 185 (2010) (citation omitted); Middleton Twp. PBA Local 124 v. Twp. of Middletown, 193 N.J. 1, 11, 935 A.2d 516 (2007); N.J. Tpk. Auth. v. Local 196, I.F.P.T.E., 190 N.J. 283, 292, 920 A.2d 88 (2007). Today, the arbitration award under review effectively inserted a new term into the parties’ negotiated agreement. Because the arbitrator exceeded his authority in making that decision, the award cannot be sustained. I, therefore, respectfully dissent.
The appeal in this case stems from the arbitrator’s resolution of a dispute about the terms of a collective bargaining agreement (Agreement). The parties disagreed over whether Trenton police officers were to be compensated for up to ten minutes of muster time before the start of their normal shift. The conflict was not about the right to compensation in general for muster or roll call; the dispute centered around whether the extra time was compensable in light of specific language in the parties’ Agreement.
In the fall of 2006, Trenton’s Police Director and Acting Director announced that roll calls were to start ten minutes before each scheduled shift. Relying on a provision in the Agreement, the City did not plan to pay additional compensation for that time.
*434The Policemen’s Benevolent Association, Local No. 11(PBA) filed a grievance. After a hearing, an arbitrator concluded that straight-time pay applied to the ten-minute period for muster— even though no language in the Agreement supports that determination. By ruling in that way, the arbitrator, in effect, injected a new term into the parties’ contract. As a result, the arbitrator’s award cannot withstand review under the “reasonably debatable” standard.
A straightforward reading of the Agreement reveals why. Article VIII explicitly covers “Compensation for Overtime.” It contains two sections relevant to this grievance: 8.01 and 8.03. There is no dispute about the language or meaning of Section 8.01. It requires that “work for any periods in excess of the normal hours of employment ... shall be paid at the rate of time and one-half ... for all such overtime.”
Instead, the principal focus of this appeal is on the meaning of Section 8.03, which requires members to report for muster before and after their normal hours of employment and addresses how that time is to be compensated. The Section reads as follows:
[1] It is recognized that employees may be required for the purpose of muster at the commencement of a tour to report in advance of the tour starting time and for the purpose of report making at the end of a tour to remain at the termination of [a] tour. [2][i] In accordance with this recognition, no overtime shall be paid for a ten minute period prior to the commencement of a tour, or for a ten minute period at the termination of a tom1, [ii] but in the event an employee is required to report earlier than ten minutes prior to the commencement of a tour or to remain beyond ten minutes after the end of a tour, the employee shall be paid the overtime rate for all time worked in excess of, the work day of eight consecutive hours. [Bracketed numbering added.]
The starting point for any analysis is the plain language of the Section, animated in this case by careful consideration of the order in which the words and phrases appear. The first sentence sets forth a basic requirement: employees may be called on to report for muster beyond their normal working hours. Had Section 8.03 stopped there, the only rate of pay for muster would have been the overtime rate established in Section 8.01. As counsel for the PBA properly conceded at oral argument, straight pay could not *435apply. In light of the clear language in Section 8.01, any time for muster beyond normal “the normal hours of employment” would have necessarily been treated and paid as overtime.
What, then, does the second sentence of Section 8.03 accomplish? Its first part, labeled 2(i) above, directly states that “no overtime shall be paid” for ten-minute muster periods before or after a tour. In other words, by agreement of the parties, the second sentence expressly extinguished the only rate of pay available for muster for periods of up to ten minutes. The Agreement thus eliminated compensation for short periods of muster.
The arbitrator, though, interpreted the above language to require non-existent straight-time pay for short muster periods. No specific basis in the text of the Agreement supports that conclusion. Indeed, nothing in the contract provides for overtime at straight-time rates in any context. The arbitrator, in effect, improperly rewrote the parties’ agreement and thereby exceeded his authority. See Cnty. Coll. of Morris Staff Ass’n v. Cnty. Coll, of Morris, 100 N.J. 383, 391, 495 A.2d 865 (1985) (“[A]n arbitrator may not disregard the terms of the parties’ agreement, nor may he rewrite the contract for the parties.”) (citations omitted); In re Arbitration Between Grover & Universal Underwriters Ins. Co., 80 N.J. 221, 230-31, 403 A.2d 448 (1979) (same).
The remainder of the second sentence of Section 8.03, labeled 2(ii) above, reinforces the conclusion that no compensation is due for short periods of muster. The second half of that sentence declares that if muster exceeds a ten-minute period, all time worked in excess of a full day “shall be paid the overtime rate.” That directive reinstates overtime for all time spent at muster, but only in the circumstances defined. No comparable language affixes straight-time or any other pay to shorter periods.
Could the parties have chosen different—even better—language to express their agreement? That is true in many situations. But it does not alter the plain construction and meaning of Section 8.03 as drafted.
*436The arbitrator looked to another part of the Agreement to justify the award. He cited language in Appendix B which addressed additional training hours: “Because the new schedule requires fewer weekly hours worked by members and does not provide sufficient manpower to allow training during normal work hours, members will be required to report for certain training outside normal working hours at no additional compensation.” (emphasis added). According to the arbitrator, because the parties could have used the above underscored language in Section 8.03 to avoid straight-time pay for ten minutes of muster, their failure to do so meant that they did not intend to exclude straight-time wages for short muster periods.
As a general rule, it is entirely reasonable to consider the contract as a whole, see N.J. Transit Bus Operations, Inc. v. Amalgamated Transit Union, 187 N.J. 546, 555, 902 A.2d 209 (2006), but that approach does not help in this case for two reasons. First, Appendix B was added ten years after Section 8.03 went into effect. Viewed in that light, it offers little insight into what the parties intended when they wrote the muster provision in 1985. Indeed, would the arbitrator’s award have been different if a challenge had been brought before Appendix B was drafted? Second, the language in Appendix B cannot inject ambiguity into otherwise straightforward language in Section 8.03; nor can it create a right to straight-time pay for muster.
I agree with the majority’s recitation of the basic legal standards regarding arbitration. Arbitration awards must not be lightly overturned. Both statutory and case law set an appropriately high threshold for vacating them. That approach is designed to foster the use of arbitration to resolve labor-management disputes. Linden Bd. of Educ., supra, 202 N.J. at 275-76, 997 A.2d 185 (citations omitted); N.J. Transit, supra, 187 N.J. at 553-54, 902 A.2d 209. It also reflects the deference due to arbitrators, whose interpretation the parties have bargained for through the collective bargaining process. Linden Bd. of Educ., supra, 202 N.J. at 276, 997 A.2d 185; Local No. 153, Office & *437Prof'l Employees Int’l Union v. Trust Co. of N.J., 105 N.J. 442, 452, 522 A.2d 992 (1987) (citation omitted). Nonetheless, it is well settled that
an arbitrator is confined to interpretation and application of the collective bargaining agreement; he does not sit to dispense his own brand of industrial justice. He may of course look for guidance from many sources, yet his award is legitimate only so long as it draws its essence from the collective bargaining agreement. When the arbitrator’s words manifest an infidelity to this obligation, courts have no choice but to refuse enforcement of the award.
[United Steelworkers v. Enter. Wheel & Car Corp., 363 U.S. 593, 597, 80 S.Ct. 1358, 1361, 4 L.Ed.2d 1424, 1428 (1960).]
Under New Jersey law, the award of an arbitrator reviewing a collectively negotiated agreement must be enforced if the arbitrator’s interpretation of the contract is “reasonably debatable.” Linden Bd. of Educ., supra, 202 N.J. at 276, 997 A.2d 185 (citation omitted); Middleton Twp. PBA Local 124, supra, 193 N.J. at 11, 935 A.2d 516; N.J. Transit, supra, 187 N.J. at 548, 902 A.2d 209. That standard requires “that the arbitrator’s choice be examined to determine whether it was justifiable based on a reasonable interpretation of the contractual language.” N.J. Transit, supra, 187 N.J. at 555, 902 A.2d 209 (citing Kearny PBA Local # 21 v. Town of Kearny, 81 N.J. 208, 220-21, 405 A.2d 393 (1979)).
Arbitrators who add terms to the actual language of a contract, though, violate their authority in a manner that requires their award to be vacated. See Cnty. Coll. of Morris, supra, 100 N.J. at 391, 397-98, 495 A.2d 865 (rejecting award made by “arbitrator [who] exceeded his authority by adding a new term to the contract”); see also PBA Local 160 v. Twp. of N. Brunswick, 272 N.J.Super. 467, 474, 640 A.2d 341 (App.Div.), certif. denied, 138 N.J. 262, 649 A.2d 1283 (1994). Likewise, an award that ignores the clear language of a contract cannot be sustained. See State, Office of Employee Rel. v. Commc’ns Workers, 154 N.J. 98, 112, 711 A.2d 300 (1998) (“Arbitrators also exceed their authority by disregarding the terms of the parties’ agreement.” (citing PBA Local 160, supra, 272 N.J.Super. at 474, 640 A.2d 341)); see also City Ass’n of Supervisors & Adm’rs v. State Operated Sch. Dist., 311 N.J.Super. 300, 312, 709 A.2d 1328 (App.Div.1998); Local 462, *438Int’l Bhd. of Teamsters v. Charles Schaefer & Sons, Inc., 223 N.J.Super. 520, 528-29, 539 A.2d 295 (App.Div.1988).
In this case, as both the trial court and the dissenting member of the appellate panel found, the arbitrator’s award is contrary to the plain language of the Agreement. Instead of remaining faithful to the Agreement the parties struck, the arbitrator effectively rewrote their contract and created a straight-time rate of pay for short periods of muster. By doing that, the arbitrator so exceeded the proper scope of his authority that the award cannot be upheld.
I, therefore, respectfully dissent.
For affirmance and remandment—Justices LONG, LaVECCHIA, ALBIN and STERN—4.
For reversal—Chief Justice RABNER and Justices RIVERA-SOTO and HOENS—3.