Kozura v. Tulpehocken Area School Dist.

• Decision Date: 21 March 2002
• Citation: 791 A.2d 1169,568 Pa. 64
• Parties: John A. KOZURA, Appellant, v. TULPEHOCKEN AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT and Tulpehocken Education Association, Appellees.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

791 A.2d 1169

568 Pa. 64

John A. KOZURA, Appellant, v. TULPEHOCKEN AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT and Tulpehocken Education Association, Appellees.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued November 14, 2001.

Decided March 21, 2002.

Maryann Q. Modesti, Lafayette Hill, for John A. Kozura.

Stephen Howard Price, Reading, for Tulpehocken Area School Dist.

A. Martin Herring, Philadelphia, for Pennsylvania State Educ. Ass'n.

Before FLAHERTY, C.J., and ZAPPALA, CAPPY, CASTILLE, NIGRO, NEWMAN AND SAYLOR, JJ.

OPINION

SAYLOR, Justice.

In this appeal, we consider the capacity of an aggrieved employee to challenge an arbitration award in general, and in light of specific grievance and arbitration procedures established under a particular, public-sector collective bargaining agreement.

Based upon complaints regarding his teaching style, Appellant John A. Kozura ("Kozura") was suspended without pay from his position as a math and science teacher in the Tulpehocken Area School District ("District"). When Kozura's employment was terminated following notice and a hearing, the Tulpehocken Education Association (the "Association"), the union representing Kozura, invoked Article XIX of the governing collective bargaining agreement to file a grievance on Kozura's behalf and to request reinstatement and an award of back pay and corresponding benefits.¹ Because the Association and the District were unable to resolve the grievance, the matter ultimately was presented to an arbitrator, who conducted hearings and issued an award reinstating Kozura based upon a determination that just cause for discharge did not exist. The arbitrator denied the claim for back pay and benefits, however, concluding that Kozura's classroom conduct warranted strong discipline in the form of a suspension without pay.² Kozura made a request to the Association to file an appeal from the arbitration award, which the Association denied, initially advising Kozura that he could pursue an appeal himself or through counsel, but subsequently notifying Kozura that he had been misinformed regarding his ability to appeal. At this point, the Association expressed a belief that only it could appeal the arbitration award.

Kozura nevertheless filed a petition for review in the common pleas court challenging some of the arbitrator's findings of fact, as well as his conclusion that the suspension without pay was appropriate. The District responded with a motion to quash the appeal, arguing that Kozura lacked standing to challenge the arbitration award, as he was not a party to the arbitration proceedings. Following the submission of stipulated facts and arguments, the common pleas court granted the District's motion to quash. The common pleas court acknowledged that, as Kozura argued, Section 606 of the Public Employee Relations Act,³ 43 P.S. § 1101.606, afforded individual employees the right to present grievances to their employer and to have such grievances adjusted without their bargaining representative's intervention, as long as the bargaining representative was allowed to be present at such adjustment, but determined that the statute did not specify whether the employee could also appeal, on his own, an adverse arbitration award. In the present case, the common pleas court concluded, allowing Kozura to do so would conflict with the relevant collective bargaining agreement, since, in the common pleas court's interpretation, that agreement vested in the Association the exclusive right to pursue arbitration. Accordingly, the common pleas court explained, the Association and the District were the sole parties to the arbitration proceeding, and Kozura therefore lacked standing to appeal.

Affirming, the Commonwealth Court first observed that, contrary to the common pleas court's conclusion, the collective bargaining agreement did not vest in the Association an exclusive right to pursue arbitration. See Kozura v. Tulpehocken Area Sch. Dist., 765 A.2d 424, 426 (Pa. Cmwlth.2000).⁴ Nevertheless, noting that the settlement mechanism provided by the contractual grievance procedure would be jeopardized if individual employees were allowed to circumvent a union's final decision regarding the resolution of a particular dispute, see McCluskey v. Commonwealth, Dep't of Transp., 37 Pa.Cmwlth. 598, 606, 391 A.2d 45, 49 (1978), disapproved on other grounds, Official Court Reporters of the Court of Common Pleas of Phila. County v. PLRB, 502 Pa. 518, 536 n. 17, 467 A.2d 311, 320 n. 17 (1983)(plurality),⁵ the Commonwealth Court concluded that an individual employee who was not a party to the arbitration proceeding is precluded from appealing the resulting arbitration award where, as here, the collective bargaining agreement does not specify who may pursue such an appeal. See Kozura, 765 A.2d at 426 (citing Krenzelak v. Canon-McMillan Sch. Dist., 129 Pa.Cmwlth. 490, 493, 566 A.2d 346, 347-48 (1989), appeal denied, 525 Pa. 622, 577 A.2d 892 (1990)). While the collective bargaining agreement may confer upon employees the right to reject union representation throughout the four-step grievance procedure, the court observed, it does not authorize them to do so after an arbitration award has been issued. See Kozura, 765 A.2d at 426. This Court subsequently allowed appeal to address the capacity of an individual employee to challenge a grievance arbitration award.⁶

The General Assembly has clearly favored the use of non-judicial dispute resolution mechanisms with respect to employment disputes, for example, in mandating arbitration of unresolved grievances in the public sector. See 43 P.S. § 1101.903; State System of Higher Educ. Cheyney Univ. v. State College Univ. Prof'l Ass'n (PSEA-NEA), 560 Pa. 135, 143, 743 A.2d 405, 409-10 (1999); Martino v. Transport Workers' Union of Phila., Local 234, 505 Pa. 391, 405-06, 480 A.2d 242, 249-50 (1984); Board of Educ. of Phila. v. Philadelphia Fed'n of Teachers Local No. 3, 464 Pa. 92, 100, 346 A.2d 35, 39 (1975). In doing so, the Legislature has emphasized informality and finality; thus, grievance and arbitration procedures are employed to establish simple, expeditious, and inexpensive means for resolving labor disputes, see Falsetti v. Local Union No.2026, United Mine Workers of Am., 400 Pa. 145, 168-70, 161 A.2d 882, 893-94 (1960), which, of course, facilitates the smooth and efficient functioning of government.

Under PERA, procedures for resolution of disputes arising out of a collective bargaining agreement are a proper subject of bargaining, see 43 P.S. § 1101.903, and, apparently, many collective bargaining agreements establish a substantial degree of control in the union over the pursuit of individual grievances. As explained by one commentator:

Under some agreements the [dispute resolution] procedure is entirely controlled by the union; under others an employee may initiate the process by filing his grievance or appeal from the first step. But under virtually all agreements, at some point, the union alone decides whether an employee's grievance will be appealed or abandoned. If the union decided not to appeal from management's decision at any step, the matter is considered settled on the basis of the decision last made.

William L. Venton, 5 AM.JUR. PROOF OF FACTS 2d 65 § 4 (Supp.2001). Accord Falsetti, 400 Pa. at 168-70, 161 A.2d at 893-94; see also Ziccardi v. Commonwealth, Dep't of Gen. Services, 500 Pa. 326, 332, 456 A.2d 979, 982 (1982). In harmony with salient legislative policies as well as the practice of most other jurisdictions, Pennsylvania courts are deferential to limitations imposed by a collective bargaining agreement upon attempts by union members to undertake individual enforcement efforts. See generally Official Court Reporters, 502 Pa. at 536,467 A.2d at 320 (characterizing collective bargaining as "a representative process which eliminates the individual employee's right to represent himself in the bargaining process"). The promotion of the integrity of the collective bargaining process and the resultant agreement also weighs against allowing an individual employee to seek arbitration or appeal an arbitration award where the terms of the collective bargaining agreement vest the authority to undertake such actions exclusively in the bargaining representative.⁷ In such circumstances, the employee's direct interests are generally vindicated primarily through enforcement of the union's duty to provide fair representation. See Martino, 505 Pa. at 394,480 A.2d at 243; Ziccardi, 500 Pa. at 329-30,456 A.2d at 981; Falsetti, 400 Pa. at 171-72, 161 A.2d at 895-96.

Arguably in some tension with the principles and concerns just discussed is the fundamental principle that a collective bargaining agreement constitutes a contract. See Community College of Beaver County v. Community College of Beaver County, Soc'y of the Faculty, 473 Pa. 576, 595, 375 A.2d 1267, 1276 (1977); Falsetti, 400 Pa. at 167, 161 A.2d at 893. Accordingly, any rights and remedies possessed by the union and the employer, as parties to the agreement, and by the employee, as a third-party beneficiary thereof, ultimately derive primarily from the language of the agreement itself. See Falsetti, 400 Pa. at 167, 161 A.2d at 893. Provided that the provisions of a collective bargaining agreement do not violate or conflict with a statute or home rule charter, see 43 P.S. § 1101.702, the rights and remedies delineated by the parties to a specific agreement, including those pertaining to the capacity vel non of an individual employee to appeal, must be respected.

Here, Kozura contends that the collective bargaining agreement between the District and the Association is unusual in that it specifically authorizes the individual employee to pursue grievances in his own right, to refer unresolved grievances to arbitration, and, as a necessary consequence of those authorizations, to appeal from an adverse award. In this regard, Part A of Article XIX ("Grievance and Arbitration...