16
LABOR RELATIONS CASE STUDIES
NEW JERSEY COPS ■ MAY 2014
PERC says no to restraining Interest Arbitration
Here we have two matters that were challenged
after their respective townships denied the PBA
Locals’ grievances.
The first instance, South Brunswick Township,
used an overly broad application of what documents should be considered when performing an
employee evaluation. The South Brunswick SOA,
FOP Lodge 51, challenged the township’s position
and filed for Interest Arbitration after the grievance
was denied. When the FOP filed for Interest Arbitration, the Township sought to restrain the interest arbitration on the matter. FOP Lodge 51 was successful with its
challenge, and the Public Employee Relations Commission ruled
that the restraint of binding Arbitration was denied.
The Commission wrote:
The Public Employment Relations Commission denies the request
of the Township of South Brunswick for a restraint of binding arbitration of a grievance filed by the South Brunswick Supervisors Association. The grievance contests the inclusion of two comments in a
unit member’s annual performance review.
The Commission finds that a comment regarding the grievant
being out for 72 days on Workers Compensation due to an injury
from an at-fault accident is arbitratable because it is more disciplinary than evaluative as it does not serve to improve his work performance and is accusatory and punitive in nature.
The Commission finds that a comment about the grievant’s
absence during Hurricane Sandy is arbitratable because it is more
disciplinary than evaluative given the employer’s admission that
grievant’s essential personnel status was not clearly communicated.
In the second matter, Wall Township sought to restrain Interest
George
O’Brien
Arbitration by filing a “Scope of Negotiation” petition, challenging
the PBA Local 234 position regarding the removal of documents
placed in a personnel file that were greater than six months old. The
Commission ruled that the restraint of binding arbitration was
denied.
According to the Commission:
The Public Employment Relations Commission denies the request
of the Township of Wall for a restraint of binding arbitration of a
grievance filed by PBA Local 234. The grievance seeks the removal
of written reprimands that are more than six months old from unit
members’ personnel records.
The Commission finds that the Attorney General’s guidelines on
retention of written reprimands are not preemptive of arbitration
because they were not adopted by the Township until after this dispute arose. The Commission finds that the grievance relates to a subject that was permissively negotiable at the time of the expungement
request because the Township admits that its policy allowed removal
of written reprimands more than six months old where the officer
had not repeated the misconduct.
The Commission holds that allowing an arbitrator to consider,
under the policy at the time, whether to order expunging of a written reprimand, would not substantially limit the Township in the
implementation of any governmental policy goal. The Commission
also holds arbitratable the PBA’s claim that the Township violated
a contract provision regarding providing notice of changes in policies.
Each of these matters may be viewed in whole on the P
.E.R.C.
website at http://www:perc.state.nj.us d