Baldwin-Woodville Sc. v. W. Cent. Ed. Ass'n

• Decision Date: 17 June 2009
• Docket Number: No. 2008AP519.,2008AP519.
• Citation: 2009 WI 51,766 N.W.2d 591
• Parties: BALDWIN-WOODVILLE AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. WEST CENTRAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION-BALDWIN WOODVILLE UNIT, Defendant-Respondent-Petitioner.
• Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court

766 N.W.2d 591

2009 WI 51

BALDWIN-WOODVILLE AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. WEST CENTRAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION-BALDWIN WOODVILLE UNIT, Defendant-Respondent-Petitioner.

No. 2008AP519.

Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

Argued April 16, 2009.

Decided June 17, 2009.

For the defendant-respondent-petitioner there were briefs by Jina L. Jonen and the

Wisconsin Education Association Council, Madison, and oral argument by Jina Jonen.

For the plaintiff-appellant there was a brief by Stephen L. Weld II, Ryan J. Steffes, and Weld, Riley, Prenn & Ricci, S.C., Eau Claire, and oral argument by Stephen L. Weld II.

An amicus curiae brief was filed by Bruce F. Ehlke and Hawks Quindel Ehlke & Perry, S.C., Madison, on behalf of AFSCME District Council 40.

An amicus curiae brief was filed by Matthew R. Robbins, Yingtao Ho, and Previant, Goldberg, Uelmen, Gratz, Miller & Brueggeman S.C., Milwaukee, on behalf of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO.

An amicus curiae brief was filed by Timothy E. Hawks, Jeffrey P. Sweetland, B. Michele Sumara, and Hawks Quindel Ehlke & Perry, S.C., Milwaukee, on behalf of AFT-Wisconsin, Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association, and Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin, IAFF, AFL-CIO.

An amicus curiae brief was filed by Roger W. Palek, Madison, on behalf of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association.

An amicus curiae brief was filed by Henry E. Koltz and Schmidt, Darling & Erwin, Milwaukee, and Dennis M. Selby and Selby Law Firm, Mequon, on behalf of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Section of the State Bar of Wisconsin.

An amicus curiae brief was filed by Brady C. Williamson, Katherine Stadler, Patricia L. Wheeler, and Godfrey & Kahn, S.C., Madison, on behalf of the Wisconsin REALTORS® Association.

¶ 1 ANN WALSH BRADLEY, J

The West Central Education Association — Baldwin-Woodville Unit seeks review of an unpublished decision of the court of appeals which reversed an order of the circuit court and vacated an arbitration award.¹ The court of appeals concluded that Christine Johnson was not entitled to back pay because she failed to file a timely grievance against the Baldwin-Woodville Area School District.

¶ 2 The Association contends that the arbitration award should not be vacated. It asserts that the arbitrator's construction of the agreement was reasonable and not a perverse misconstruction. Because we conclude that the arbitrator's construction of the agreement had a foundation in reason, it was not a perverse misconstruction. Accordingly, we determine that the arbitration award should not have been vacated and we reverse the court of appeals.

I

¶ 3 Christine Johnson is a full-time teacher employed by the Baldwin-Woodville Area School District ("the District"). She is a member of the West Central Education Association ("the Association") which represents employees in negotiations with the District. The Association and the District are parties to a collective bargaining agreement that provides for final and binding arbitration of disputes that arise under the agreement.

¶ 4 The arbitration provision states in part:

It is understood that the function of the arbitrator shall be to provide an opinion as to the interpretation and application of specific terms of this Agreement. The arbitrator shall not have power without specific consent of the parties, to either advise on salary adjustments, except the improper application thereof, or to issue any opinions that would have the parties add to, subtract from, modify or amend any terms of this Agreement. The decision of the arbitrator will be final and binding on both parties.

¶ 5 On June 26, 2006, the Association filed a grievance with the District on Johnson's behalf. The dispute went to binding arbitration before a Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission arbitrator. The subject of this appeal is the resulting arbitration award. It required the District to make Johnson whole for the wages that she would have earned between 2002 and 2005 had the District properly set her salary in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement. The facts below are taken primarily from the arbitrator's findings of fact.

¶ 6 Johnson was first employed as a Baldwin-Woodville teacher in the fall of 2002. When she initially applied for the position, she provided her resume to the District. The resume indicated that she had a Bachelor's degree in elementary education and had earned an additional eleven graduate school credits.

¶ 7 Under the collective bargaining agreement, a teacher's base salary is determined by a salary schedule which fixes the salary based on the teacher's degree and additional graduate level credits. Teachers who have attained a Bachelor's degree are placed at the BA + 0 lane. Teachers who have received additional graduate credits are placed at advanced lanes such as BA + 8, BA + 16, depending on the number of graduate credits they have received.

¶ 8 The District initially placed Johnson at the BA + 8 lane based on the information she provided in her application. This placement was reflected in the contract prepared by the District which Johnson signed and returned. She was never asked to provide any additional information or documents verifying her education.

¶ 9 Shortly after Johnson began teaching, the District and the Association executed a new collective bargaining agreement. When Johnson signed her revised contract on October 17, 2002, she was unaware that it incorrectly placed her at the BA + 0 lane, when in fact she belonged at the BA + 8 lane. Johnson was paid at the BA + 0 level for the remainder of the 2002-2003 school year, as well as for the 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 school years.

¶ 10 In August of 2005, Johnson realized she was being underpaid. On August 30, she submitted a form entitled "Request to Change Lanes for the 2005-2006 School Year." The preprinted form addressed only the issue of earned graduate credits. Johnson did not make any separate back pay request at that time. The District approved her lane change request and placed her at the BA + 8 lane for the 2005-2006 school year. It also increased her wages prospectively to reflect the lane change, but it did nothing about any back pay for the period of time when Johnson was paid at an incorrect level.

¶ 11 Based on the testimony at the arbitration hearing, the arbitrator determined that it was not until May 2006 that Johnson realized the District had not made her whole for the unpaid wages. She and an Association representative met with the superintendent to resolve the situation. The superintendent declined to act and instead stated that he would take the matter to the School Board. It subsequently voted to deny Johnson's request for back pay. The date of the Board meeting is not in the record, but the arbitrator determined that Johnson did not learn of the Board's action until late June.

¶ 12 The Association submitted a formal grievance to the District on June 26, 2006. On July 17, the District denied the grievance "for a series of substantive and procedural reasons," including that the grievance was untimely. Subsequently, Johnson filed several additional grievances as required by the collective bargaining agreement. They were denied, and the Association gave notice that it was requesting final and binding arbitration.

¶ 13 The Association stated the issue as follows:

Did the District violate the Contractual Agreement between the [District] and the [Association] when it refused to pay back pay for the period of time in which Christine Johnson was paid at the incorrect lane on the schedule?

The District countered with the argument that the grievance was untimely.

¶ 14 To determine whether the grievance was timely, the arbitrator interpreted the provision in the collective bargaining agreement that sets forth the grievance procedure. It states in relevant part:

Grievances shall be processed in accordance with the following procedure:

Step 1

a. An earnest effort shall first be made to settle the matter informally between the teacher and his immediate supervisor.

b. If the matter is not resolved, the grievance shall be presented in writing by the teacher or employee representative to the immediate supervisor within fifteen (15) days after the facts upon which the grievance is based first occur or first become known. ...

¶ 15 The District argued that the "fact[] upon which the grievance is based" was Johnson's placement at the incorrect pay lane, and that she was aware of the District's mistake in August 2005. The arbitrator acknowledged the District's argument but determined that this was not the fact upon which the grievance was based. Instead, he concluded: "the fact which the grievant is challenging is the District's denial of back pay, not the District's initial placement of Johnson in the BA lane."

¶ 16 The arbitrator concluded that in August 2005, the District implicitly acknowledged that Johnson had been entitled to BA + 8 status all along and that she "could reasonably have expected that the District would rectify its error by making her whole." He determined that the critical event was the decision to deny Johnson's request for back pay: "It is thus the Board's action rejecting Johnson's request that is the critical event in the processing of this grievance[.]"

¶ 17 The arbitrator found that Johnson learned of the Board's decision in "late June." He concluded that Johnson's June 26 grievance was filed within 15 days of when Johnson learned that the Board had decided to deny her request for back pay. Therefore, he determined that the grievance was timely.

¶ 18 The arbitrator also concluded that Johnson's placement at the BA + 0 lane was in violation of the collective bargaining agreement.² He ordered the District to "make Christine Johnson whole for the wages she would have earned had she been maintained at the BA + 8 lane for the 2002-03, 2003-04 and 2004-05 school years."

¶ 19 The District sought judicial review of...