Court Opinion

ID: 9734818
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 17:47:13.795258+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:51.471960
License: Public Domain

SCOTT, Justice
(dissenting).
I must respectfully dissent. The issue in the instant case is simple — whether an employer subject to the Public Employment Labor Relations Act of 1971 (PELRA), Minn.Stat. §§ 179.61-77 (1980), may unilaterally alter an employee’s duties, assignment, and salary under what appellant describes as “administrative reorganization of its functions and programs.” The majority answers this question in the affirmative. I respectfully disagree. The result reached by the majority opinion does not comport with public policy, and is inconsistent with our prior PELRA opinions.
As a result of the majority opinion, management now has the ex parte right to define what is managerial. PELRA was never intended to permit this result. When reasonable minds may differ as to the division between “terms and conditions of employment” and matters of “inherent managerial” discretion, all disputes must be resolved in favor of the strong public policy served by negotiation. Such reasoning finds support in International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 320 v. City of Minneapolis, 302 Minn. 410, 225 N.W.2d 254 (1975), in which we stated:
A major purpose of PELRA is to further the resolution of labor disputes through negotiation. Because of the severe restrictions on strikes contained in the act, we believe that the legislature intended the scope of the mandatory bargaining area to be broadly construed so that the purpose of resolving labor disputes through negotiation could best be served.
Id. at 415, 225 N.W.2d at 257 (footnote omitted).
Unlike the majority, I find the instant case analogous to that in Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, Local 59 v. Minneapolis *478Special School District No. 1, 258 N.W.2d 802 (Minn.1977) in which we quoted at length from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters case. In Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, Local 59, we held that although the decision to transfer a large number of teachers is managerial, the criteria for determining which teachers are to be transferred is negotiable. Similarly, the procedures for effecting a reduction in supervisory personnel should also be negotiable.
The majority opinion also departs from International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 320, in which we held that a reprimand and 30-day suspension without pay of a union employee by the City of Minneapolis “are not within inherent managerial policy.” 302 Minn, at 416, 225 N.W.2d at 257-58. In the International Brotherhood of Teamsters case we did not permit management to reduce by one-twelfth the yearly wages of the suspended employee. Yet, in the instant case, the majority, permits the following reductions in pay upon employees who have not done anything wrong:
Johnson: $30,368 down to $23,070
Skjervold: $26,182 down to $23,070
Sweet: $30,966 down to $23,070
Tomlinson: $26,649 down to $20,740
Winter: $31,070 down to $22,525
Where, as here, the transfer of duties is so significant that it causes a substantial reduction in pay and fringe benefits, and results in ouster from the bargaining unit that represents the employees, the criteria for determining which supervisory personnel are to be transferred should be negotiable.1

. See Minnesota Federation of Teachers, Local 331 v. Independent School District No. 361, 310 N.W.2d 482 (Minn.1981).