By Therese Norton
The Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) vacated an order dismissing the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 609’s unfair labor practice complaint against the Seattle School District. Seattle School District, Decision 11995-A (PECB, 2014). The union had alleged the School District had provided false and misleading information in response to its information request regarding placing an employee on administrative leave. The District must now file its answer to the complaint, and the matter can proceed to a full evidentiary hearing.
PERC’s Unfair Labor Practice Manager David I. Gedrose had initially dismissed the complaint because the allegation was based on whether the employer breached a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) over the process for placing an employee on administrative leave. The MOU requires that the School District give the union notice is such situations. ULP Manager Gedrose framed the issue as to whether the employer refused to bargain by placing the employee on administrative leave in contravention of the MOU. Since the MOU is a contractual matter for which PERC does not assert jurisdiction, the complaint was dismissed.
On appeal, however, the Commission properly reframed the issue as being whether the employer refused to bargain by providing false information that was properly requested by the union as an information request.
There is a high legal standard for dismissing a complaint at the preliminary ruling stage and before a full evidentiary hearing. The Commission applied the proper legal standard and concluded, “Assuming that the employer provided the union with false information in responses to an information request, the union alleged sufficient facts for a preliminary ruling.”
At the preliminary ruling stage of an unfair labor practice proceedings, it is necessary to assume all of the alleged facts are true and provable. In order to win at the hearing, however, the union will have to show that it made a relevant request for information, and the employer refused or failed to provide the information.
