Court Opinion

ID: 9754462
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 20:01:50.805592+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:53.794302
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Judge Colins:
I respectfully dissent.
The employer argues that its decision to transfer work from the plant to other locations during the pendency of the strike was economically and tactically justified. However, no good faith or justification exceptions to the lockout rule exist in Section 402(d) of the Act as written. Case authority interpreting the Acts status quo doctrine has refused to allow such justification defenses.
Our Supreme Court has rejected the interjection of good faith or justification elements into the status quo test. Its rationale is that the Boards compensation decisions will be unnecessarily complicated by the need to *271ascertain the good faith or justification underlying each party’s departure from the status quo. See Grandinetti v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 87 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 133, 486 A.2d 1040 (1985) (citing Local 730, United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe-fitting Industry v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 505 Pa. 480, 480 A.2d 1000 (1984)). The test is an objective one, and departure from willingness to resume work under the status quo for any reason is all that need be shown. Evidence as to justification or good faith is legally irrelevant. Compare Comment, “Unfair Labor Practice and Contract Aspects of an Employer’s Desire to Close, Partially Close, or Relocate Bargaining Unit Work,” 24 Duq.L.Rev. 285-308 (1985).
The majority errs in allowing the outcome of this case to be governed by evidence of the employer’s economic justification for its tactic of relocating plant facilities. It tries to sidestep the import of its rationale by finding the Union’s offer to resume work on a day-to-day basis was not an offer to work for a reasonable time under the circumstances of the case.1 Even though the offer to return to work was made after three months, this alone cannot suffice to deny the Union benefits, because under Norwin School District v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 80 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 67, 471 A.2d 904 (1984), aff'd, 510 Pa. 255, 507 A.2d 373 (1986), determinations of eligibility must be made on a week by week basis. What makes the offer unreasonable in the eyes of the majority must, therefore, be the fact that it was not economically practical for the employer to resume operations without a guarantee that no more work stoppages would occur.
*272Such an approach will lead to Board hearings and findings of fact on issues of good faith and economic justification for refusal to accept offers to resume work under the status quo. The better approach is to follow Grandinetti and Local 730 and inquire whether the Union offered to resume operations under the terms and conditions : of the expired contract while negotiations were still continuing, and whether the employer refused that offer. Asking why the employer refused that offer, or whether that offer was reasonable under the circumstances, invites long, complicated hearings before the Board. We should follow the simpler approach, exemplified by cases like McCormick Dray Lines, Inc. v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 74 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 181, 459 A.2d 74 (1983), and eschew the more complicated approach espoused by the majority.

 The Board made no such finding of feet.