Court Opinion

ID: 9720884
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 08:43:54.040209+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:22.015417
License: Public Domain

SHIRLEY S. ABRAHAMSON, J.
(dissenting). The declaratory judgment which the majority affirms includes two adjudications:
1. That the teachers’ contracts of Mack and Schermer-horn were in full force and effect for the 1976-1977 school year; and
2. That the two teachers were properly laid off for the 1976-1977 school year in accordance with the lay-off provisions in the 1975-1976 collective bargaining agreement.
The reasoning in the majority opinion is contradictory. On the one hand the majority says that the individual contract was renewed for 1976-1977 pursuant to sec. 118.22, Stats., but the lay-off for 1976-1977, being a temporary separation from employment, is not governed by the dismissal or renewal provisions of sec. 118.22. On the other hand, the majority appears to assume that see. 118.22 does apply to lay-offs but its application is affected by the existence of the collective bargaining agreement. Accordingly, the majority opinion predicates the validity of the board’s lay-off on the existence of and on the terms of the collective bargaining agreement.
I agree with the majority that the teachers’ contracts were in full force and effect for the 1976-1977 school year by the operation of sec. 118.22, Stats. Section 118.22 *494expressly states that “if no [written] notice [of renewal or refusal to renew the contract] is given on or before March 15, the contract then in force shall continue for the ensuing school year.” The parties agree that no notice was given pursuant to sec. 118.22(2) and (3) and that therefore the individual teachers’ contracts were renewed for the ensuing 1976-1977 school year.
Section 118.22, Stats., creates a procedure for providing information to a teacher as to his or her employment status for the ensuing school year. The statute also gives the school board prompt and early information as to which teachers will remain on the staff for the coming school year and which teachers will have to be replaced. These purposes of sec. 118.22 are applicable throughout the state, and state-wide uniformity of notice and time of hiring and rehiring of teachers is beneficial to teachers, school boards and the public.
In Faust v. Ladysmith-Hawkins School Systems, 88 Wis.2d 525, 533, 277 N.W.2d 303 (1979), we concluded that the public policy underlying sec. 118.22 precluded the school board from enforcing a provision in an employment contract that stated that the teacher’s contract would not be renewed for the ensuing school year. We held that the teacher and school board could not by contract change the statutory procedure; we held that despite the contract the school board had to follow the nonrenewal procedures set forth in sec. 118.22. We explained the public policy behind sec. 118.22 as follows:
“. . . The provisions of that statute advance the legislatively declared public policy of promoting fairness and thoughtful decisionmaking in the rehiring of public school teachers. In addition, it establishes a comprehensive and orderly procedure governing the renewal or nonrenewal of teacher contracts in school districts which have no tenure system. These procedures inure to the benefit of not only the teacher and the school district but to the public at large.”
*495The purposes of sec. 118.22, Stats., continue even though there is a collective bargaining agreement. As the majority points out, sec. 111.70 authorizes school boards and teachers to bargain collectively on questions of wages, hours and conditions of employment (which we have held includes lay-offs). Section 111.70 does not obviate the provisions of secs. 118.21 and 118.22; the act of hiring and rehiring must be accomplished through secs. 118.21 and 118.22, while the terms of the collective bargaining agreement control wages, hours and conditions of employment. Sec. 111.70(3) (a) 4, Stats.
Section 118.22, Stats., does not set forth the substantive terms of the contract being renewed between the board and the teacher; it is silent as to pay, hours, teaching responsibilities, etc., which are subjects for negotiation between the contracting parties. Sec. 118.22 does, however, speak of renewal of the individual contract for the ensuing school year. Sec. 118.22 thus fixes the duration of the renewed contract, just as it fixes the procedure for renewal. The essence of secs. 118.21 and 118.-22 is that each teacher must be employed by an individual written contract, the terms of which are for the most part governed by the parties, but the renewal of which is governed by the statutes. Muskego-Norway CSJ SD No. 9 v. WERB, 35 Wis.2d 540, 555, 151 N.W.2d 617 (1966); Faust v. Ladysmith-Hawkins School Systems, 88 Wis.2d 525, 277 N.W.2d 303 (1979).
The duration of the renewed contract is fixed by sec. 118.22, Stats., and cannot be changed by a contract previously entered into between the board and teacher. Sec. 118.22 provides that the parties may by mutual agreement modify or terminate the one-year renewed contract. The legislature did not provide that the. parties may modify sec. 118.22. The board and teachers in the instant case attempted to modify sec. 118.22. There was no modification by mutual agreement of the 1976-1977 con*496tract, because the renewed contract was not in existence at the time of the adoption of the collective bargaining agreement.
Just as a one-year employment contract cannot bind the parties by a provision that the contract will not be renewed (Faust, supra, 88 Wis.2d 525), a one-year employment contract (whether governed by a collective bargaining agreement or not) cannot bind the parties by a provision that upon renewal, the renewed contract shall be for a period of less than one year. According to the majority opinion, the teacher and board can renew a one-year contract under sec. 118.22, and at the same time the board may be empowered under the collective bargaining agreement to decide whether the teacher shall be released from employment for all or part of that year.
Although in this case the board had to notify the teacher of the lay-off by March 15 of the preceding school year, the same date as the last notice of nonrenewal under sec. 118.22, the collective bargaining agreement might have set forth a later date of notification during the preceding school year or might have empowered the board to lay off the teacher anytime during the ensuing school year. The reasoning of the majority opinion applies regardless of the date provided in the collective bargaining agreement for the notice of lay-off. Such a provision in the collective bargaining agreement conflicts with sec. 118.22 and is invalid. “A labor contract term whereby parties agree to violate a law is void.” WERC v. Teamsters Local No. 563, 75 Wis.2d 602, 612, 250 N.W.2d 696 (1977). Giving effect to such a provision in a collective bargaining agreement replaces the statewide uniform rehiring procedure established by sec. 118.22 with a multitude of procedures that would emerge under different collective bargaining agreements.
I agree with the majority that both sec. 118.22 and sec. 111.70, Stats., can and must be given effect and that *497sec. 118.22 should not be interpreted to preclude collective bargaining on the subject of layoffs. The collective bargaining agreement can and should govern the rights, benefits and procedures pertaining to lay-offs. The layoff provisions of the collective bargaining agreement can provide, for example, the order in which teachers will be dismissed and the order in which they will be rehired. However, the collective bargaining agreement cannot supersede the requirement of sec. 118.22 that a contract, renewed under sec. 118.22, is for the duration of the ensuing school year. If a teacher can be laid off any time during the school year, the individual teaching contract for a full school year is rendered meaningless. A school board which lays off a teacher who has a contract which has been renewed under sec. 118.22 is violating the very terms of that contract which have been prescribed by statute. If a contract for the school year is in existence, a lay-off constitutes a dismissal. A dismissal must comply with sec. 118.22. Under sec. 118.22, Stats., the teacher may be dismissed for cause during the school year or may be dismissed as of the end of the school year by the board notifying the teacher pursuant to sec. 118.22 of the nonrenewal of the contract. Nonrenewal under sec. 118.22 clearly includes the power of a school board to refuse to renew a contract in order to decrease staff.
Accordingly, I would affirm only that part of the judgment which declares that the teachers’ contracts for the 1976-1977 school year were in full force and effect.
I have have been authorized to state that Mr. Justice Heffernan and Mr. Justice Day join in this dissent.