On June 10, 2013, WSH Partner Brett J. Schneider obtained an arbitration victory for the Town of Golden Beach (the “Town”) in a dispute with the Fraternal Order of Police (“FOP”) over a 2012 increase in pay to a Town police officer during a time when officer and sergeant salaries were frozen under the collective bargaining agreement. The FOP alleged that the Town increased the officer’s pay from Step 2 ($46,786.00 per year) to Step 5 ($54,160.00 per year) in violation of a contractual salary freeze. The Town responded that it did not provide the officer with a pay increase; rather, it implemented a previously agreed-upon pay increase that had been deferred since 2009. Specifically, the Town asserted that it hired the officer with the expectation that it would pay him at a higher rate due to his prior experience, and entered into a verbal agreement with the officer to defer the implementation of the higher rate. Therefore, because the higher pay rate had already been in place (albeit deferred) prior to the freeze, the Arbitrator concluded that the Town did not violate the pay freeze language in the collective bargaining agreement.
WSH’s Labor and Employment Law Group has significant experience representing municipalities in traditional labor law matters. The Group routinely handles arbitrations and civil service board and other administrative hearings for our public sector clients. Additionally, our attorneys regularly serve as chief negotiators on behalf of management in collective bargaining, and they conduct post-negotiation training of supervisory personnel to assist in ensuring that the collectively bargained changes are properly implemented. The Group regularly drafts employee handbooks, manuals, policies and procedures governing a wide array of workplace issues.
Author(s): Brett J. Schneider & Brooke P. Dolara
