Recent Developments

For months, the Town of Framingham promised Local 1652, IAFF, that it would ask Fall Town Meeting to fund an arbitration award that provided for modest cost of living increases for fire fighters. Without any advance notice, Town Manager Robert Halpin worked to remove the funding request from Town Meeting, and providing several inconsistent explanations for his actions. Attorneys Leah Barrault and Ian Russell have filed charges in superior court and with the Department of Labor Relations to enforce the Town's bargaining obligations.

A public employer is required to bargain with the employees' representative prior to changing conditions at work. For decades, the entity now known as the Commonwealth Employment Relations Board has held that this obligation extends to the process for promotions. The attached case, arising out of the Town of Arlington and decided a few weeks ago, applies this analysis to the Town's decision to use an assessment center for promotions instead of typical written examination.

New federal election rules require that Employers produce all available contact information, within two days, for workers eligible to vote in a union election, even if the information must be obtained through several different lists or database.

Attorney Al Gordon O'Connell persuaded a neutral arbitrator to allow United Steel Workers, Local 9360 to require that the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority distribute overtime in a fair and equitable manner.

Attorney James Hykel persuaded the Department of Labor Relations to issue a complaint after the Town of Foxborough, for the second year in a row, to refuse cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) to wages of employees newly represented by the United Steelworkers.

Attorney Patrick Bryant persuaded an investigator of the Massachusetts Department of Labor Relations that the City of Fall River violated state law by conditioning reinstatement on fire fighters' submission to a City-appointed physician and a drug test.

Massachusetts public pensions are funded almost entirely by contributions of employees. Unlike many pensions in the private sector and other public sectors, public employers generally do not match employee contributions. Pensions therefore represent an investment by employees to provide some financial security after retirement. Attorney Patrick Bryant, who recently help protect the pension of a police officer convicted of misdemeanors, explains how public employee pensions can be taken.

A neutral arbitrator agreed with Attorney James Hykel and
IAFF Local S-28 that
the Fire Chief improperly relied upon prior reprimands in suspending a veteran fire fighter for 42 hours. He reduced the suspension to eight (8) hours and ordered that the old reprimands be expunged from the personnel file.

UPDATE - We previously informed you about an unfair labor practice complained issued upon charge of Acton Permanent Fire Fighters, Local 1904, concerning comments and an investigation.

The parties recently settled the matter through assistance of a state
mediator. As a result, the charge and complaint is being dismissed.

Drug testing of Massachusetts public employees represented by a union can be accomplished only if after the employer provides notice and an opportunity to bargain about drug testing, and then bargains in good faith to impasse or resolution. A Hearing Officer of the Department of Labor Relations affirmed that settled principle in a decision issued earlier this summer, which is attached.