Court Opinion

ID: 9724063
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 10:43:20.737629+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:55.002844
License: Public Domain

LANSING, Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion insofar as it holds that the city’s collective bargaining agreement with the firefighters is void because it conflicts with the statute. The statute provides that a public employee shall be entitled to military leave without loss of pay not to exceed fifteen days per year. Minn.Stat. § 192.26. The city and the firefighters’ union negotiated a contract that provided firefighters would be paid up to 168 hours of military leave per calendar year. This number is an upward adjustment to take into account the extent to which the firefighters’ fifty-six hour average work week exceeds the conventional forty-hour work week.
I agree that when there is a conflict between the terms of a collective bargaining agreement and the terms of a statute, that the statute controls. See Jerviss v. Independent Sch. Dist., 273 N.W.2d 638, 644 (Minn.1978); International Bhd. of Teamsters, Local No. 320 v. City of Minneapolis, 302 Minn. 410, 417-18, 225 N.W.2d 254, 258 (1975). I do not agree that the collective bargaining agreement’s practical solution for arriving at a definition of a firefighters’ average day is in conflict with Minn.Stat. § 192.26.