Council of New Jersey State College Locals NJSFT, AFT/AFL-CIO v. State
| Decision Date | 19 November 1991 |
| Docket Number | P,AFL-CI |
| Citation | 251 N.J.Super. 577,598 A.2d 1237 |
| Parties | , 71 Ed. Law Rep. 185 COUNCIL OF NEW JERSEY STATE COLLEGE LOCALS, NJSFT, AFT/etitioner-Appellant, v. STATE of New Jersey (Office of Employee Relations), Respondent-Respondent. |
| Court | New Jersey Superior Court — Appellate Division |
Dwyer & Canellis, for petitioner-appellant (Paul J. Burns on the brief).
Robert J. Del Tufo, Atty. Gen. of New Jersey, for respondent-respondent (Michael Clancy, Asst. Atty. Gen., of counsel; Melvin E. Mounts, Deputy Atty. Gen., on the brief).
Before Judges COLEMAN, BILDER and STERN.
The opinion of the court was delivered by
COLEMAN, J.H., P.J.A.D.
This is an appeal by the Council of New Jersey State College Locals, NJSFT, AFT/AFL-CIO, (Council) 1 from a final decision of the Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) which refused to modify or rescind certain regulations promulgated by the New Jersey State Board of Higher Education (Board). The challenged regulations were promulgated to implement the Autonomy College Law, N.J.S.A. 18A:3-14 et seq. and N.J.S.A. 18A:64-1 et seq., designed to grant to "the State colleges a greater degree of autonomy and [to] provide[ ] for a new governance structure for the colleges." Statement of the Senate Education Committee to Assembly Bill No. 1173 (July 9, 1986). PERC found that the contested regulations preempt negotiations.
At or about the time the Autonomy Law became effective on July 9, 1986, the Council finalized negotiations for a Collective Agreement that was effective for the period of July 1, 1986 to June 30, 1989. Pertinent to this appeal is Article XXXV of the Collective Agreement which provides:
The parties to this agreement for the period July 1, 1986 to June 30, 1989 for the State Colleges Unit agree that the provisions of the State Compensation Plan and Civil Service Rules and Regulations, and the procedures provided therein, which establish terms and conditions of employment and which were applicable to the employees in the State College Unit on June 30, 1986, and which may have been or which may be affected by the enactment and application of A-1173 (S-1469) and A-1777 (S-1470) [the Autonomy Law] shall be continued unless changed by negotiation or regulation.
While the above Collective Agreement was operative, the Board promulgated certain regulations dealing with the classification of titles and reclassification appeal procedures, N.J.A.C 9:6A-3.1 to 3.6, necessitated by the Autonomy Law as replacement of certain Civil Service regulations. Although Council was afforded an opportunity to discuss the proposed regulations, the Board refused to engage in any negotiation respecting the classification and reclassification appeals procedure regulations despite Council's demands for negotiations. These new regulations became effective January 4, 1988, see 20 N.J.R. 89(c).
The pivotal issue in this appeal is whether mandatory negotiations were required before promulgating the regulations. Council took the position below and on this appeal that Article XXXV of the Collective Agreement, the prevailing statutory and decisional law, require each aspect of the replacement regulations to be negotiated.
Hearings were conducted during 1989 to determine whether the Board had violated provisions of the New Jersey Employer-Employee Relations Act (Act), N.J.S.A. 34:13A-5.4a(1) and (5), by not negotiating with the Council respecting the contested regulations prior to adoption. The hearing examiner concluded that despite Council's demands for negotiations and the Board's position that certain matters related to terms and conditions of employment were negotiable, the Board refused to negotiate on matters such as the classification and reclassification appeal procedures. The Hearing Examiner found that such a refusal to negotiate constituted a violation of the Act, N.J.S.A. 34:13A-5.4a(5). The Hearing Examiner concluded, however, that the regulations should not be rescinded because the Council failed to establish that they actually changed any terms and conditions of employment.
The Council filed exceptions to the Hearing Examiner's final conclusion contending that the adopted regulations changed the appeal procedures for classification and reclassification determinations which affected the terms and conditions of employment thereby requiring negotiations. It is undisputed that under N.J.A.C. 9:6A-3.3, 3.5 and 3.6, the Chancellor and the Department of Higher Education have been substituted for the (Civil Service) Department of Personnel as the persons to decide the classification and reclassification determination appeal.
PERC rendered its final decision on May 14, 1990. It framed its decision in light of the factors articulated in Council of N.J. State College Locals v. State Bd. of Higher Educ., 91 N.J. 18, 28-29, 449 A.2d 1244 (1982). Those factors are:
(1) the extent to which the regulation was consistent with or necessary to effectuate the agency's statutory authority; (2) the relationship between the regulation and the exercise of the agency's regulatory jurisdiction; (3) the scope of the agency's employer role; (4) the agency's rationale for adopting the regulation; (5) the circumstances under which the regulation was adopted; (6) the scope and composition of the class of employees affected by the regulation; (7) the basic fairness of the regulation to the employees affected; and (8) the extent to which the employees or their representatives had the opportunity to express their views on the regulation during its formative stages.
Ibid. PERC then stated:
Applying the Council factors to all the circumstances of this case, we are not convinced that the adoption of these procedures constituted an abuse of the Board's regulatory power. With respect to factors one and two, N.J.S.A. 18A:64-6(h) provides that the Board shall prescribe qualifications for various classifications. The contested provisions provide for appeals of classification determinations. As a whole, the regulations directly effectuate the Board's statutory mandate. With respect to factor three, the Board's employer role was secondary in light of its regulatory obligation to adopt a comprehensive classification plan. With respect to factor four, the Board had sound reasons to adopt these appeal procedures. An appeal procedure had been an integral part of the civil service classification system and the Board sought to carry that principle over into its substitute regulations. With respect to factor five, the regulations were adopted after parties agreed that civil service rules and regulations should be continued unless changed by negotiation or regulation. There is no indication that hostility to negotiations motivated their adoption. With respect to factors six and seven, the contested regulations establish an appeal procedure available to all unit members on an equal basis. They appear reasonable and fair. With respect to factor eight, the Council expressed its views during the adoption process. The Board responded that the majority of the proposed new rules maintained the status quo and represented legitimate issues for the board to determine through rules. The Board modified many sections of the proposed rules to affect only non-unit employees and stated that it anticipated negotiating with the Council over a wide range of other issues. 20 N.J.R. 90. Consequently, we hold that the Council has not rebutted the presumptive validity of the regulations establishing appeal procedures or proved that proposing the regulations, in light of the Board's attempts to avoid any impact on unit employees, was an unlawful evasion of negotiations. [footnotes omitted.]
Council has appealed from that portion of PERC's determination which refused to rescind N.J.A.C. 9:6A-3.3, 3.5 and 3.6 because those regulations were found to have preempted negotiations with Council.
On this appeal, Council contends "the Commission [PERC] acted arbitrarily and capriciously in failing to void regulations adopted by the Board of Higher Education concerning appeal procedures." Intimately intertwined with this issue is the further contention by Council that the appeal procedures regulations in the classification and reclassification plan relate to terms and conditions of employment thereby requiring negotiations before being adopted.
Agency regulations are presumptively valid and the burden rests with an appellant to establish their invalidity. Medical Soc'y of New Jersey v. New Jersey Dept. of Law & Public Safety, 120 N.J. 18, 25, 575 A.2d 1348 (1990); Bergen Pines County Hosp. v. New Jersey Dept. of Human Servs., 96 N.J. 456, 477, 476 A.2d 784 (1984); State v. Professional Ass'n of N.J. Dept. of Educ., 64 N.J. 231, 258, 315 A.2d 1 (1974); In re N.J. Medical Malpractice Reinsurance Recovery Fund Surcharge Adopted New Rules, N.J.A.C. 11:18, 246 N.J.Super. 109, 122, 586 A.2d 1317 (App.Div.1991), certif. denied 126 N.J. 328, 598 A.2d 886 (1991). Ordinarily, the presumption of validity attaches only if the regulations are within the authority delegated to the promulgating agency and are not, on their face, beyond the agency's power. Ibid. Where the presumption of validity has not been overcome, the regulations are given the preemptive effect of precluding negotiations. This is so because the "adoption of any specific statute or regulation setting or controlling a particular term or condition of employment will preempt" negotiation on that subject. State v. State Supervisory Employee Ass'n, 78 N.J. 54, 81, 393 A.2d 233 (1978) (emphasis in original).
The Board functions as an agency within the State Department of Higher Education and the Board has broad regulatory authority over the State college system. Council, supra, 91 N.J. at 24, 449 A.2d 1244; N.J.S.A. 18A:3-13 to 3-16; N.J.S.A. 18A:64-6. Although the Board performs only regulatory functions, the State Department of Higher Education "is...
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