AFSCME Sues Illinois Labor Relations Board For Allegedly Violating Open Meetings Act
In an uncanny twist to the ongoing
collective bargaining negotiations between AFSCME and the State of Illinois, on
December 6, 2016 AFSCME filed a lawsuit alleging the Illinois Labor Relations
Board violated the Open Meetings Act when it issued its written decision and
order finding that the parties were at impasse in the negotiations. The complaint also included a request that the court issue a temporary restraining order to prohibit the state from implementing the terms of its "Last, Best,
and Final Offer."
These unusual circumstances and
allegations of Open Meetings Act violations are the result of more than two
years of contentious collective bargaining negotiations. By way of background,
in early 2015, the State and AFSCME began negotiating for a successor
collective bargaining agreement. In those negotiations, the parties negotiated
and agreed to a series of Tolling Agreements whereby they agreed to continue
meeting and negotiating in good faith for a successor bargaining agreement and
to not to engage in strikes, work stoppages, work slowdowns, or lockouts unless
they mutually agreed that an impasse had been reached in the collective
bargaining or until the Illinois Labor Relations Board resolved the issue
concerning the existence of an impasse. To that end, on January 8, 2016, the
State determined that an impasse existed and presented AFSCME with a Last,
Best, and Final Offer and pursuant to the Tolling Agreement. After AFSCME
disagreed that the parties were at impasse, the State submitted the issue to
the Illinois Labor Relations Board as an unfair labor practice charge.
On
November 15, 2016, the Illinois Labor Relations Board orally declared there was
an impasse in the collective bargaining negotiations. Thereafter, the State
began implementing the terms of its Last, Best, and Final Offer, which included
the following contract terms: $1,000 merit pay for employees who missed less
than 5% of assigned work days during the fiscal year; overtime after 40 hours;
bereavement leave; the use of volunteers; the beginning of a merit raise
system; drug testing of employees suspected of working impaired; and the
formation of a task force to look into workplace safety. The Illinois Labor Relations Board issued its written decision on
December 5, 2016, but subsequently reissued the decision at its December 13,
2016 Board Meeting.
Since the ILRB oral decision, AFSCME has
launched a full litigation assault to sidestep the Illinois Labor Relations
declaration of impasse by first filing for a TRO in St. Claire County on
December 1, 2016 to prohibit the State from implementing the terms of its Last,
Best, and Final Offer and then filing on December 6, 2016 the action
challenging to the Illinois Labor Relations Board’s impasse order as a
violation of the Open Meetings Act. In its
lawsuit, AFSCME purports that the Illinois Labor Relations Board circumvented
the Open Meetings Act by making substantive determinations in private and
outside the November 15, 2016 Board meeting. AFSCME’s claims are based on alleged
differences between the Illinois Labor Relations Board’s written decision
issued on December 5, 2016 and its oral decision issued at the November 15,
2016 Board meeting.
Even though it is unlikely any
inconsistencies AFSCME alleges between the Illinois Labor Relation Board’s oral
decision and its written order would not have changed the result, the circuit
court granted AFSCME’s request for the TRO against the Illinois Labor Relations Board and suspended the enforcement of
its written decision permitting the implementation of the State’s Last, Best,
and Final Offer. Indeed, the Illinois Labor
Relations Board likely cured any error if there was one by reissuing the
written order on December 13, 2016. But, the net effect of the granting
of the TRO is that the negotiations are back where they started – at a
standstill.
We will provide updates or developments as this case proceeds.
Post Authored by Jeff Brown, Ancel Glink
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