Montgomery County v. Pa. Labor Relations Bd.

• Decision Date: 15 February 2001
• Citation: 769 A.2d 554
• Parties: MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Appellant, v. PENNSYLVANIA LABOR RELATIONS BOARD.
• Court: Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court

769 A.2d 554

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Appellant, v. PENNSYLVANIA LABOR RELATIONS BOARD.

Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued October 4, 2000.

Decided February 15, 2001.

Howard R. Flaxman, Philadelphia, for appellant.

John B. Neurohr, Harrisburg, for appellee.

Alaine S. Williams, Philadelphia, for intervenor, AFSCME.

Before DOYLE, President Judge and COLINS, McGINLEY, SMITH, FRIEDMAN, KELLEY and LEADBETTER, JJ.

SMITH, Judge.

Montgomery County (County) appeals from an order of the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas that affirmed an order of the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board (Board) certifying the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, District Council 88, AFL-CIO, (Union) as the exclusive bargaining representative of full and part-time non-professional employees of the County who are directly involved with and necessary to the functioning of the courts, but who are not hired, fired and directed by the courts (Court-Related Bargaining Unit). The County contends that the Board abused its discretion in its determination of which employees to include in the Court-Related Bargaining Unit; in its failure to dismiss the Union's petition for representation due to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's mandate for a Unified State Judicial System; and in its failure to set aside the election due to various improprieties in the manner in which the election was conducted.

I

The Union filed a petition for certification with the Board in March 1998 seeking to represent the Court-Related Bargaining Unit in the County. The County and the Union agreed that the Court-Related Bargaining Unit should include employees in the Sheriff's Office, the Prothonotary's Office, the Register of Wills, the Clerk of Courts, the District Attorney's Office, the Public Defender's Office, the Office of the Coroner and the Jury Board. The County further contended that the Court-Related Bargaining Unit should also include certain employees working for Information Services, the Youth Center, the Youth Center Shelter, the DUI Office, District Justice offices, the Domestic Relations Office, the Adult Probation Office, the Juvenile Probation Office, the Law Library and the Court Administration. The Board hearing examiner determined that employees in the offices of Domestic Relations, Adult Probation, Juvenile Probation, District Justices, Court Administration and the Law Library should be included in a court-appointed bargaining unit rather than the Court-Related Bargaining Unit. The hearing examiner found that employees in Information Services, the DUI Offices, the Youth Center and the Youth Center Shelter are not court-related.

An election was held pursuant to a Board order on October 16, 1998 in Courtroom F of the Montgomery County Courthouse, a site upon which the parties mutually agreed and which was designated by the Board election officer. The bulk of the eligible employees voted between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m., and at times during that period the line of voters extended out of the polling area into the hallway. The election officer instructed voters to take their ballot into the voting booth, mark the box of their choice, fold the ballot, bring it out and place it in the ballot box. Three voters disregarded these instructions and voted outside the booth; the County poll watcher was able to observe how one voter marked his ballot. The Union's poll watcher was greeted by voters at most with a mere "Hello," and he responded in the same fashion.

Sometime between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m., voter Eddie Culbreath was in line to vote, and while in line he chanted: "Go union, go union! More money, more money!" Hearing Examiner's order, March 24, 1999, at p. 2. One voter asked the election officer which box was for the Union, and she responded that the upper box was a vote for the Union and the lower box was a vote for no representation. While Marjorie Guziewicz waited to vote in the polling area, a deputy sheriff said to her, "Remember Ed." Id. This comment referred to Guziewicz's late husband who had been a deputy sheriff. Guziewicz believed that the deputy sheriff made the comment to encourage her to vote for the Union, but she was of the opinion that her husband had not been involved in union organizing.

Outside the designated polling area, Chester Hollinger, an employee who was instrumental in organizing for the Union, said, "Thanks for your support" to one or two people waiting in line. Id. Around 9:45 a.m., people outside the designated polling area yelled to people inside Courtroom F, informing them of a "get together" later in the day, and people inside the polling area responded as to whether they would attend. Id., at p. 3. The results of the election favored the Union by a majority of six votes (114 for the Union to 108 for no representative), with 5 ballots challenged by the County. The Board entered a nisi order of certification on April 1, 1999 and a final order on June 21, 1999 dismissing the County's objections to the election. The County petitioned the trial court for review, and after hearing argument the court dismissed the County's petition on January 24, 2000.

II

The County first contends that the Board abused its discretion and ignored dispositive evidence of record in making its unit determination. The Board possesses administrative expertise in the area of public employee relations, and particularly in the determination of appropriate bargaining units. School District of Philadelphia v. Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, 719 A.2d 835 (Pa.Cmwlth. 1998); Independent Ass'n of Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board Employees v. Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, 48 Pa. Cmwlth. 342, 409 A.2d 532 (1980). In reviewing the Board's decision, this Court must rely upon the Board's expertise. In re Employees of the Deputy Sheriffs Benevolent Ass'n of Bucks County, Inc., 153 Pa.Cmwlth. 75, 620 A.2d 622 (1993). Thus the Court's review of the Board's bargaining unit determination is limited to whether the findings of fact are supported by substantial evidence and whether the conclusions drawn from those facts are reasonable and not arbitrary, capricious or illegal. Id.

The Board has long followed a policy of certifying broad county employee bargaining units that include a unit of employees who are hired, fired and supervised by the courts (i.e., court-appointed), a unit of employees who are not court-appointed but who are directly involved with and necessary to the functioning of the courts (i.e., court-related) and a residual unit of employees who are neither court-appointed nor court-related. See, e.g., In re Employees of Chester County, 27 PPER ¶ 27003 (Final Order, 1995). The court-related bargaining unit typically includes employees of the Sheriff's Office, the Prothonotary's Office, the Register of Wills, the Clerk of Courts, the District Attorney's Office, the Public Defender's Office, the Office of the Coroner and the Jury Board, which are the departments included in the Court-Related Bargaining Unit that the hearing examiner certified in this case. Id.

The County contends that the hearing examiner erred in excluding employees in the offices of Domestic Relations, Adult Probation, Juvenile Probation, District Justices, Court Administration and the Law Library based upon his conclusion that these employees should be included instead in a court-appointed bargaining unit. The County argues that the hearing examiner's determination was erroneous because the employees in those offices are appointed by a resolution of the County Commissioners rather than by a court order. The County maintains that whether an employee is included in a court-appointed bargaining unit should be determined solely by the ministerial act of whether the employee is appointed by County resolution or by court order. While the County's argument is appealing in its simplicity, it is ultimately unpersuasive.

The Board's policy to certify a separate unit of court-appointed employees arose in response to a series of Supreme Court decisions which held that judges are the public employers of the court employees whom they supervise, although county commissioners act as the judges' exclusive representatives in labor negotiations. See County of Lehigh v. Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, 76 Pa.Cmwlth. 641, 464 A.2d 699 (1983) (discussing the policy of the Board regarding the court-appointed bargaining unit), rev'd on other grounds, 507 Pa. 270, 489 A.2d 1325 (1985). The court-appointed unit therefore is properly comprised of those employees over whom judges possess the actual authority of employers. Courts necessarily retain the authority to select, discharge and supervise these employees regardless of the ministerial acts giving rise to the employees' appointment within the particular county. See id.

The hearing examiner considered various sources, including the status of...