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City of Hartford v. Hartford Municipal Employees Association1/29/2002
This appeal raises several issues of first impression regarding the authority of the state board of labor relations to interpret and enforce grievance settlements pursuant to the Municipal Employees Relations Act (act). The defendants, the Hartford Municipal Employees Association (union) and the state board of labor relations (board), appeal from the trial court's judgment sustaining the appeal by the plaintiff, the city of Hartford (city), from the board's decision determining that the city had committed an unfair labor practice by ''refusing to comply with a grievance settlement'' in violation of General Statutes § 7-470 (a) (6) of the act. On appeal, the defendants claim that the trial court improperly concluded that: (1) a ''grievance settlement'' does not encompass an unappealed step two grievance decision; (2) § 7-470 (a) (6) only requires compliance with a grievance settlement with respect to the specific circumstances giving rise to the dispute and not to future disputes arising from the same provision in the collective bargaining agreement (agreement), despite the parties' clearly expressed intent that the settlement have future application; and (3) the board is barred, under the doctrine of exhaustion of remedies, from exercising its jurisdiction over claims arising under § 7470 (a) (6) until a grievance has proceeded through arbitration or has been abandoned. We conclude that the board properly exercised jurisdiction and properly determined that the city had committed a prohibited practice in violation of § 7-470 (a) (6). Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the trial court.
The record discloses the following relevant facts and procedural history. The city has instituted personnel rules that are incorporated by reference into its agreement with the union. Personnel rule X sets forth normal working hours for city employees as 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with an unpaid hour for lunch, for a total of seven work hours per day. Personnel rule IV, however, establishes that certain employees, including those employees at the level of civil engineer I and higher, are entitled to work a ''flexible'' schedule.
Prior to May, 1997, employees classified as civil engineer III had been permitted to alter their schedules in two different ways: (1) they could shift the beginning and ending time of their workday while still working a total of seven hours in one day; or (2) they could work less than seven hours in one day and work additional hours on other days to compensate for the lost time to meet the required thirty-five hour total work week. In some instances, the employees sought permission before changing their schedule; on other occasions, they merely informed their supervisor of the change. On May 28, 1997, John Bertoli and Richard St. Pierre, city employees with job classifications of civil engineer III in the city's department of public works, were told by their supervisor that they no longer would be permitted to work flexible schedules. Bertoli and St. Pierre filed a grievance that same day, alleging a violation of the agreement and the city's personnel rules with regard to the flexible schedule policy. The adjustment required to remedy the violation, according to the grievance statement, was for the city to adhere to the flexible schedule provisions in the personnel rules and the agreement.
On July 1, 1997, subsequent to a hearing, the city's representative, Kathleen Morey, a principal administrative analyst, rendered a step two decision on the grievance filed by Bertoli and St. Pierre pursuant to the agreement. Morey determined that the grievance presented two distinct issues: hours of work and flexible schedules. With respect to the first issue, Morey concluded th
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