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Pasco committed unfair labor practices(Tri-City Herald (Kennewick, WA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Nov. 22--The city of Pasco committed unfair labor practices four years ago when it ended its comp time program for police officers without negotiating the change with the police union, a state employment commission ruled. The city this week posted a notice of the ruling in the Pasco Police Department, and City Manager Gary Crutchfield read the wording into the record at the city council's meeting. "PERC concluded the city indeed violated the association's labor law rights under the state rules," Crutchfield told the council. The conflict between the city and police union involved personnel policies for compensatory time and so-called "comp time trumping." The comp time policy allowed an officer to accrue 1.5 hours of time off in lieu of payment for every hour of overtime worked. Comp time trumping meant an employee with comp time accrued could take time off even if it meant the city had to bring in someone else to cover the shift as overtime. "Cities and counties around the country ended up paying time-and-a-half, time-and-a-half and time-and-a-half," Crutchfield said. In 2003, a federal court did away with the practice of comp time trumping, and the city notified the union it wouldn't be allowed any longer. "The police association didn't want to give up comp time trumping, necessarily," Crutchfield said. "So we discussed that for several months -- a way to establish new rules that would do away with comp time trumping but still allow the use of comp time." When the city and union couldn't reach an agreement, Crutchfield conferred with the city council, then exercised a provision in the personnel policy that allowed the city to end the comp time program and cash out by paying officers for all the time they had accrued. When the city implemented the policy change without negotiating with the union, the union filed an unfair labor practices claim with the PERC. In 2005, an arbitrator ruled against the city, and an appeals board upheld the decision. Meanwhile, the use of comp time for police officers was restored in 2007, when the city and the union reached a new labor agreement. But after the state employment commission's ruling this year, negotiations with the city and union again stalled over what conditions the ruling restored. The two sides resolved the matter about two weeks ago. Detective Scott Warren, president of the police union, said he agrees that comp time trumping wasn't a good business practice. It led to situations where officers who had scheduled vacation time had to give up their time off if an officer with comp time insisted on taking those days, he said. "It was a problem. I'll say that, and we were aware of it," Warren said. "But they made a unilateral change without bargaining in good faith." Now that the matter is resolved, Warren said he was glad to put it behind him so the city and union can reach an agreement on the next labor contract. Negotiations on it began in summer 2007. To see more of the Tri-City Herald, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.tri-cityherald.com. Copyright (c) 2008, Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |