Gustafson v. Wachusett Regional School Dist.10/20/2005
Worcester.
June 3, 2005.
Present: Laurence, Duffly, & Katzmann, JJ.
Public Employment, Sick leave benefits, Collective bargaining. School and School Committee, Regional school district, Collective bargaining. Labor, Public employment. Contract, School teacher, Regional school district, Employment, Construction of contract.
Civil action commenced in the Superior Court Department on February 11, 2000.
The case was heard by John P. Connor, Jr., J.
After a bench trial, a judge of the Superior Court entered judgment in favor of the plaintiff, Maureen C. Gustafson, and ordered the town of Rutland to reimburse her for accumulated sick leave benefits she claimed to have earned while employed by Rutland. Rutland appeals, arguing that the judge erred in awarding her payment for these sick leave benefits because Gustafson was not employed by Rutland for fifteen years, as required by the terms of her collective bargaining agreement. We affirm the judgment.
Gustafson worked for Rutland, principally as an elementary school teacher, from January, 1981, to June 30, 1994. During that period, her union (the Rutland Teachers Association) and Rutland negotiated a collective bargaining agreement (the "Town Agreement"), in effect (according to the parties' stipulation) from September 1, 1993, through August 31, 1994, which provided in relevant part:
"Upon retirement with at least 15 years in the Rutland Public School System, a teacher, after notifying the Superintendent year prior to their retirement, will be reimbursed for [one-half] of any unused accumulated sick leave."
On July 1, 1994, after a vote of the member towns (Holden, Paxton, Princeton, Sterling, and Rutland), the Wachusett Regional School District (WRSD), which already ran the regional high school for the towns, assumed jurisdiction over students in prekindergarten through grade eight, and the separate school systems in the constituent towns ceased to exist. (Of those systems, only Rutland's had provided for an accumulated sick pay benefit.) Accordingly, at that time Gustafson, like all other elementary school teachers, became an employee of WRSD.
The December, 1993, agreement (the "Authorization Agreement") pursuant to which the participating towns effected the regionalization of their primary schools had contained, inter alia, the following provision (ยง 18.2):
"Terminal benefits due to professional staff and personnel formerly employed by an individual member town, shall remain the financial obligation of the individual member town, upon severance of service of the employee . . . ."
In June, 1995, WRSD and the Wachusett Regional Education Association, Inc. (WREA), entered into a so-called "Bridge Agreement" to govern collective bargaining issues between WRSD and the teachers in the constituent towns retroactively to September 1, 1994, pending agreement on a more permanent collective bargaining agreement. The aspect of the Bridge Agreement pertinent to this case is contained in the preamble:
"The provisions of this Agreement listed below shall supersede and take precedent over any and all like provisions in collective bargaining agreements between individual town(s), committees, collaboratives, and associations representing employees covered by the Recognition clause and included in the Regionalization Agreement adopted December 28, 1993. All other provisions of local agreements shall prevail for their individual locations until such time as a successor agreement is ratified by the Committee and the Association."
The Bridge Agreement contained no provisions concerning
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