Cheltenham Township v. Cheltenham Township Police Department

312 A.2d 835, 11 Pa. Commw. 348, 86 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2428, 1973 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 486
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedDecember 3, 1973
DocketAppeal, No. 2 Tr. Dkt. 1973
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 312 A.2d 835 (Cheltenham Township v. Cheltenham Township Police Department) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cheltenham Township v. Cheltenham Township Police Department, 312 A.2d 835, 11 Pa. Commw. 348, 86 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2428, 1973 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 486 (Pa. Ct. App. 1973).

Opinions

Opinion by

President Judge Bowman,

For two successive years, in 1971 and 1972, collective bargaining between Cheltenham Township in Montgomery County and its police officers was unsuccessful, requiring the issues in dispute to be submitted to binding arbitration as prescribed by the Act of June 24, 1968, P. L. 237, 43 P.S. §217.1 et seq. (Supp. 1973-1974), commonly referred to as Act No. 111. Portions [350]*350of the 1971 award were challenged by the township, which are the subject of our opinion in Cheltenham Township v. Cheltenham Police Department, 8 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 360, 301 A. 2d 430 (1973).

However, collective bargaining for the year 1972 reached an impasse and was arbitrated prior to our decision concerning disputed portions of the 1971 award. In this appeal, transferred to us by the Supreme Court as was the prior appeal, most of the challenged portions of the 1972 arbitration award cover the same issues in dispute in the prior appeal and our decision in the first appeal disposes of such issues.

One new issue arises out of the 1972 arbitration award which was not a subject of the 1971 award. One other subject of both the 1971 and 1972 arbitration awards also requires further comment in light of our first decision in Cheltenham and subsequent developments.

One of the issues producing an impasse in the 1972 collective bargaining process and submitted to binding arbitration concerned the practice of using police vehicles to pick up and deliver police officers to their homes incident to going on and off duty. The township insisted that this practice be discontinued. It was submitted to the arbitrators among other issues and the arbitration award directed that the practice be continued. This subject was a new issue in the 1972 collective bargaining process because one of the disputed issues resolved by the 1971 award (and approved by us in our first opinion in Cheltenham as a proper subject of collective bargaining and ultimate binding arbitration) was elimination of a residency requirement as a condition to employment provided the police officer resided not more than four miles from headquarters. Although the “record” in this appeal does not reveal it, both parties at oral argument agreed that at [351]*351the present time all police officers of the township reside in the township, a fact we believe to be a relevant and important one in determining this issue.

Appellant township asserts that the subject of the award is violative of the law governing its affairs and not within the scope of the Act which affords to policemen and firemen through their representatives “. . . the right to bargain collectively with their public employers concerning the terms and conditions of their employment, including compensation, hours, working conditions, retirement, pensions and other benefits . . . .” (Section 1, 43 P.S.§217.1 (Supp. 1973-1974).)

Unquestionably, a plethora of subjects touching upon the employer-employe relationship between governments and their policemen and firemen will be fertile ground for dispute as to whether a particular subject is within the scope of bargainable terms and conditions of employment within the meaning of the Act. Several basic principles and guidelines, however, have already evolved as aids in quest of an answer to this question.

In Allegheny County Firefighters, Local 1038, International Association of Firefighters v. Allegheny County, 7 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 81, 84-85, 299 A. 2d 60, 61-62 (1973), we said:

“Thus, all political subdivisions of the Commonwealth are constitutionally and statutorily mandated to put into effect, to the extent possible under their delegated authority, an award of an arbitration panel. ‘As long as a poltical subdivision may legally perform a duty mandated by such award, it must perform such duty.’ Tate v. Antosh, 3 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 144, 153, 281 A. 2d 192, 198 (1971). ‘In spite of the fact that neither the relevant constitutional provision nor the enabling legislation clearly delineates the power of the arbitration panels . . . such panels may not mandate that a governing body carry out an illegal act. We [352]*352reach this result by quite frankly reading into the enabling legislation the requirement that the scope of the submission to the arbitrators be limited to conflicts over legitimate terms and conditions of employment. Were this not so, virtually any issue could be submitted to the arbitrators under the guise of a labor conflict. Further, we fully realize that there will be issues that would be fully legitimate in the context of a private sector labor dispute which will not be legitimate in the context of a public sector labor dispute. Public employers are in many respects more limited in what they may do vis-a-vis their employees, and those limitations must be maintained. The essence of our decision is that an arbitration award may only require a public employer to do that which it could do voluntarily. We emphasize that this does not mean that a public employer may hide behind self-imposed legal restrictions. An arbitration award which deals only with proper terms and conditions of employment serves as a mandate to the legislative branch of the public employer, and if the terms of the award require affirmative action on the part of the Legislature, they must take such action, if it is within their power to do so.’ Washington Arbitration Case, 436 Pa. 168, 176-77, 259 A. 2d 437, 442 (1969).

“In Washington, it was held under the laws governing third class cities that such cities are without authority to pay hospitalization insurance premiums for families of city employees, hence such a provision in an arbitration award was unenforceable.” (Emphasis in original.)

Therefore, there must be excluded from the scope of the Act and necessarily outside of the definition of bargainable issues, any subject which would require the government employer to perform any duty or to take some action which is specifically or impliedly prohibited [353]*353by tbe statutory law governing its affairs. Such subjects are, of course, equally beyond tbe scope of an arbitration award.

Secondly, as Washington dictates, caution must be exercised in applying decisions or rulings concerning tbe meaning of terms and conditions of employment in tbe private sector to a determination of its meaning in this Act, as public employers are in many respects more limited in wbat they may do vis-a-vis their employers and those limitations must be maintained.

Another significant distinction must be recognized in considering mandated bargaining subjects within the private sector as guidelines to determination of such subjects within the meaning of the Act. In the private sector, having bargained in good faith, both the employer and employe are afforded the right to refuse the other party’s proposal. Such is not the case under the Act in question which requires such disputed issues to be resolved by compulsory binding arbitration. Statutory denial of this freedom of choice of action on the part of the bargainers suggests a limitation upon the parameter of bargaining subjects within the meaning of the Act.

The development of the decisional law to date in this area has been limited to a determination that a particular subject of an arbitration award under the Act would or would not require the governmental employer to perform a duty or take an action prohibited by the statutory law governing its affairs. Cases cited supra.

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312 A.2d 835, 11 Pa. Commw. 348, 86 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2428, 1973 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 486, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cheltenham-township-v-cheltenham-township-police-department-pacommwct-1973.