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Regents of University of New Mexico v. New Mexico Federation of Teachers 428616/23/1998
CERTIFICATION FROM THE NEW MEXICO COURT OF APPEALS Petra Jimenez Maes, District Judge
{1} The Board of Regents of the University of New Mexico (UNM) appeals a determination by the Public Employee Labor Relations Board (PELRB) that invalidated portions of the university's labor-management relations policy. The PELRB held that the Public Employee Bargaining Act, NMSA 1978, 10-7D-1 to -26 (1992, prior to 1997 amendment, effective Apr. 1, 1993) [hereinafter PEBA], requires all public employers, like UNM, to open the collective-bargaining process to all public employees except management employees, supervisors, and confidential employees. The PELRB held UNM's labor policy invalid because it excludes many categories of employees that PEBA includes. The PELRB's determination was affirmed by the district court. On appeal, UNM raises two arguments: (1) that its labor policy is exempt from PEBA under the Act's "grandfather clause," under which public employers whose labor policies were established prior to October 1, 1991 are released from the requirements of the Act; and (2) that PEBA conflicts with the Regents' constitutionally mandated autonomy in its governance of the university. We conclude that those portions of UNM's labor relations policy that exclude categories of employees in violation of PEBA are not grandfathered, and that PEBA does not conflict with the New Mexico Constitution. We affirm.
I. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS
{2} The University of New Mexico is a state institution whose management and control are placed by the New Mexico Constitution into the hands of a seven-member Board of Regents. See N.M. Const. art. XII, 13 (as amended 1994). In May 1970, the UNM Board of Regents adopted a labor-management relations policy which authorized collective bargaining for several categories of UNM employees. See University of New Mexico, Labor-Management Relations (as revised April 16, 1979) [hereinafter Policy]. This Policy was revised in April 1979 and again in 1980. (The record in this case included only the text of the 1979 version of the Policy; there is no suggestion that pertinent sections of the1980 version were materially different.) The Policy expressly excluded certain categories of employees from the bargaining process including "administrative, faculty and supervisory personnel" and "professional and technical personnel." UNM, Policy B, at 3-4. By the time of the first hearing in this matter, UNM had recognized and negotiated collective-bargaining agreements with four bargaining units representing approximately 1800 employees.
{3} Twenty-two years after UNM first adopted its collective-bargaining Policy, the New Mexico Legislature enacted the Public Employee Bargaining Act. See 10-7D-1 to -26 (enacted by 1992 N.M. Laws, ch. 9). PEBA for the first time guaranteed to public employees the right under the law "to organize and bargain collectively with their employers." Section 10-7D-2. PEBA excluded "management employees, supervisors and confidential employees" from the collective-bargaining process. Section 10-7D-5. However, it opened the process to several categories of public employees that were explicitly excluded by the UNM Policy. See 10-7D-4(P) (defining "public employee"); UNM, Policy B, at 3-4.
{4} One of the provisions of PEBA created the PELRB, whose function is the administration of PEBA. Section 10-7D-8 (creating the Board). The powers and duties of the PELRB included promulgating rules and regulations, 10-7D-9(A), overseeing collective bargaining between public employees and their employers, 10-7D-9(A)(1), (2), and enforcing the provisions of PEBA "through the imposition of appropriate administrative remedies," 10-7D-9(F). See generally 10-7D
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