By Jordan L. Jones
In Fire Fighters Local 3564 v. City of Grants Pass, the Oregon court of appeals held that the city had to include vacation and sick leave time when calculating overtime wages for firefighters to comply with Oregon Revised Statutes (O.R.S.) 652.080.
The union pointed out that “O.R.S. 652.080 . . . [requires] ‘vacation or sick leave time . . . [to] be considered as time on regular duty[,]’ and therefore count toward overtime entitlement.”
The city argues that the statute does not apply because:
The city and the union bargained over, and agreed to, a different method of calculating overtime – a method based on actual ‘time worked,’ not including sick leave and authorized vacation . . . [and that] the Public Employees Collective Bargaining Act (PECBA), O.R.S. 243.650 to 243.782, creates a comprehensive structure under which public employee unions can negotiate terms of employment, and it supersedes the mandate of O.R.S. 652.080.
The court noted that the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries had made a declaratory ruling in favor of the union’s position that O.R.S. 652.080 applied and therefore the court was to review the ruling for errors of law [and look to the legislative intent of O.R.S. 652.080]. Simpson v. Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, 242 Or.App. 287, 290, 255 P.3d 565 (2011); O.R.S. 183.482(8)(a).
Where, as here, the resolution of a dispute requires us to determine the meaning of a statute, our ‘paramount goal’ is to determine the legislature’s intent.
The court found that the legislature, through O.R.S. 652.080, did intend to mandate that vacation and sick leave was to be considered as time on regular duty. The court also stated that PECBA did not allow parties to exempt themselves from O.R.S. 652.080. The court held that “O.R.S. 652.080 applies and that the city must include authorized vacation and sick leave time when computing overtime wages for the union-represented firefighters that it employs.”
Editor’s Note (Jim Cline): Oregon has adopted a very favorable term of employment for its firefighters. Actually this law was originally enacted in 1959, predating the Oregon collective bargaining law and likely reflects the political efforts if the firefighters to establish certain minimum working conditions. In 1959, the FLSA did not apply to public employees as this predates the 1986 Garcia decision.
The case represents the general and important the principle that collective bargaining agreements cannot reduce employment law protections below the “floor” established by the legislature. It is puzzling why the city thought that they could negotiate around this legal requirement. Wage and hour laws contain many mandates including those for minimum wages, overtime and rest breaks and labor negotiations typically commence from the premise that nothing in the agreement will fall below the level of any prescribed term of employment already required by law.
