Fraternal Order of Police v. Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board

735 A.2d 96, 557 Pa. 586, 1999 Pa. LEXIS 2245, 161 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3112
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 22, 1999
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 735 A.2d 96 (Fraternal Order of Police v. Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fraternal Order of Police v. Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, 735 A.2d 96, 557 Pa. 586, 1999 Pa. LEXIS 2245, 161 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3112 (Pa. 1999).

Opinion

OPINION

NEWMAN, Justice.

The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board (PLRB) appeals an Order of the Commonwealth Court that reversed an Order of the PLRB denying a Petition for Unit Clarification filed by the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). We affirm.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In 1971, the FOP was certified as the exclusive bargaining representative for a unit of Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (LCB) employees. At that time, the LCB was responsible for both liquor licensing functions and enforcement of liquor laws. In 1987, however, the legislature enacted legislation that transferred liquor law enforcement to the Pennsylvania State Police, and the LCB employees were given a choice of which agency to join. Those that chose to join the State Police became liquor enforcement officers (enforcement officers), and those that chose to remain with the LCB became liquor-licensing analysts (licensing analysts).

Currently, the State Police employs approximately 148 enforcement officers, whose duties include conducting undercover investigations, executing raids, and making arrests. The enforcement officers receive firearms training, are issued firearms, and are subject to the same physical and educational standards that are required of State Troopers. The LCB currently employs approximately forty-six licensing analysts, whose duties include auditing and other regulatory work. The licensing analysts do not participate in criminal investigations, raids, or other enforcement activity, they do not carry firearms, and they are not subject to State Police physical requirements. Most of the licensing analysts work from their homes.

Notwithstanding the division of job functions in .1987, the enforcement officers and the licensing analysts remained in a single bargaining unit. Approximately eight years later, on April 21, 1995, the FOP filed with the PLRB a Petition for Unit Clarification, alleging that the two groups of employees did not have an “identifiable community of interest” as required by Section 604 of the Public Employees Relations Act (PERA), Act of July 23,1970, P.L. 563, as amended, 43 P.S. § 1101.604.1 Thus, the FOP sought to split the bargaining unit into two separate units — one for enforcement officers, and one for licensing analysts.

A PLRB Hearing Examiner held a hearing, and on March 13, 1996 issued a Pro[98]*98posed Decision and Order recommending that the Petition for Unit Clarification be denied. The Hearing Examiner concluded that, “[g]iven the [PLRB’s] steadfast adherence to the broad-based bargaining unit policy, the FOP’s request to create two separate units, one for each position, must be rejected. The positions are not so divergent in the community of interest analysis to warrant a conclusion that no community of interest exists.” The FOP filed exceptions to the Proposed Decision and Order, and on July 24, 1996, the PLRB issued a Final Order denying the Petition for Unit Clarification, holding that factors common to both positions — including wage scales, hours and benefits, and grievance procedures, as well as bargaining history — outweighed the differences in job functions, “which ... are not so significant as to destroy the identifiable community of interest” between the two groups of employees.

The FOP appealed to the Commonwealth Court, and in a reported Opinion without dissent, the court reversed the Order of the PLRB. Fraternal Order of Police, Conference of Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board Lodges v. PLRB, 695 A.2d 926 (Pa.Cmwlth.1997). The Commonwealth Court reviewed the decision of the PLRB to determine “whether the findings of fact are supported by substantial evidence and whether the conclusions drawn from those facts are reasonable;” id. at 928, n. 3 (citing Washington Township Municipal Authority v. PLRB, 131 Pa.Cmwlth. 36, 569 A.2d 402 (1990), alloc. denied, 525 Pa. 652, 581 A.2d 577 (1990)), and concluded that:

it was not reasonable for the [PLRB] to rely only on those common conditions of employment that presently exist because the groups once shared job functions and all other conditions of employment. The [PLRB] gave more weight to these factors than to those which involve the actual functions of the job, and the dissimilarities in job functions and other conditions of employment are both numerous and significant.

Id. at 930. The PLRB then filed a Petition for Allowance of Appeal, which we granted, raising two issues: (1) whether the Commonwealth Court applied the proper scope of review of the PLRB’s bargaining unit determination; and (2) whether the Commonwealth Court erred in holding that the enforcement officers and the licensing analysts do not have an identifiable community of interest.

DISCUSSION

Issue One — Scope of Review

For many years, the Commonwealth Court has held that its scope of review of a PLRB bargaining unit determination encompasses the assessment of two factors: (1) whether the PLRB’s findings of fact are supported by substantial competent evidence; and (2) whether the legal conclusions drawn from those facts are reasonable and not arbitrary or capricious. See, e.g., School District of Philadelphia v. PLRB, 719 A.2d 835 (Pa.Cmwlth.1998); Fraternal Order of Police, supra; Washington Township Municipal Authority v. PLRB, 131. Pa.Cmwlth. 36, 569 A.2d 402 (1990), alloc. denied, 525 Pa. 652, 581 A.2d 577 (1990); Amalgamated Transit Union, Local No. 89 v. PLRB, 92 Pa.Cmwlth. 144, 498 A.2d 485 (1985); School District of the Township of Millcreek v. Millcreek Education Association, 64 Pa.Cmwlth. 389, 440 A.2d 673 (1982); PLRB v. Venango/Clarion Mental Health Center, Inc., 52 Pa.Cmwlth. 341, 415 A.2d 1259 (1980); Albert Einstein Medical Center, Northern Division v. PLRB, 30 Pa.Cmwlth. 613, 374 A.2d 761 (1977); Western Psychiatric Institute v. PLRB, 16 Pa.Cmwlth. 204, 330 A.2d 257 (1974). Notwithstanding this long line of cases, the PLRB, relying primarily on this Court’s decision in Estate of McGovern v. State Employees’ Retirement Board, 512 Pa. 377, 517 A.2d 523 (1986), argues that the prevailing standard is too broad, and that the Commonwealth Court should be limited to considering only the [99]

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Bluebook (online)
735 A.2d 96, 557 Pa. 586, 1999 Pa. LEXIS 2245, 161 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3112, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fraternal-order-of-police-v-pennsylvania-labor-relations-board-pa-1999.