State - Patrol, Decision 8363 (PSRA, 2004)

Herb Harris, Organizer, for the union.

Juliet Jones, Legal Officer, for the employer.

On November 4, 2003, the Washington Public Employees Association, United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 365 (union), filed a petition for clarification of an existing bargaining unit with the Public Employment Relations Commission under WAC 391-25-420(2)(a), concerning certain employees of the Washington State Patrol (employer). The union sought to merge two existing bargaining units: The “electronic communications system tech shop” unit and the “electronic services section” unit. An investigation confer­ence was conducted on December 22, 2003, by Hearing Officer Starr H. Knutson.

The Executive Director accepts the information and stipulations presented by the parties during the investigation conference and, acting under WAC 391-25-426, merges the historical bargaining units into one unit.

BACKGROUND

The employer is a state agency which provides public safety services to the residents of Washington. The union represents several bargaining units of employees of this employer. This case involves two separate bargaining units that were organized at different times:

•                     A bargaining unit of employees working in the employer’s Electronic Services Section created in 1977;[1] and

•                     A bargaining unit of employees working in the employer’s Electronic Communications System Tech Shop created in 2003.[2]

Consistent with the descriptive terms drawn from the employer’s table of organization, there are some fundamental similarities between the duties, skills and working conditions of the employees in those units.

The Personnel System Reform Act of 2002 (PSRA) has various effective dates. A new collective bargaining system for state civil service employees is codified in Chapter 41.80 RCW, of which one section that took effect on June 13, 2002, is pertinent here:

RCW 41.80.070 BARGAINING UNITS - CERTIFICATION.

(1) A bargaining unit of employees covered by this chapter existing on June 13, 2002, shall be considered an appropriate unit, unless the unit does not meet all the requirements of (a) and (b) of this subsection. The commission, after hearing upon reasonable notice to all interested parties, shall decide, in each application for certification as an exclusive bargaining representative, the unit appropriate for certification. In determining the new units or modification of existing units, the commission shall consider: the duties, skills and working conditions of the employees; the history of collective bargaining; the extent of organization among the employ­ees; the desires of the employees; and the avoidance of excessive fragmentation

….

(3) If a single employee organization is the exclusive bargaining representative for two or more units, upon petition by the employee organization, the units may be consolidated into a single larger unit if the commission considers the larger unit to be appropri­ate. If consolidation is appropriate, the commission shall certify the employee organization as the exclusive bargaining representative of the new unit.

(emphasis added.) The Commission adopted a special rule to implement that statutory provision as follows:

WAC 391-25-426 SPECIAL PROVISION–-STATE CIVIL SERVICE EMPLOYEES. An employee organization that represents two or more bargaining units of state civil service employees may obtain a merger of those units by filing a petition under WAC 391-25-420(2)(a). If the merged unit is found to be appropriate under WAC 391-25-420(2)(c)(i) and (ii), the employee organization shall be certified as exclusive bargaining representative without need for unit determination elections.

In essence, the special rule eliminates the need for concurrent unit determination elections to validate the merger of separately-organized bargaining units.[3]

DISCUSSION

The determination and modification of appropriate bargaining units of state civil service employees is now a function delegated by the Legislature to the Public Employment Relations Commission. RCW 41.06.340; 41.80.070. The “fragmentation” and “merger” components of RCW 41.80.070 can be presumed to reflect legislative concern about the existence of more than 180 separate bargaining units among state civil service employees when the PSRA was enacted.

By the stipulations now before the Executive Director, the parties seek to have two bargaining units of non-supervisory employees merged under WAC 391-25-426. The parties have submitted informa­tion and stipulations which satisfy the requirements of WAC 391-25-420(2)(c)(ii), and nothing has come to the attention of the Commission staff or Executive Director that contradicts the propriety of the action requested by the parties. In this case, the merger of two bargaining units addresses the “fragmentation” component of the statutory unit determination criteria and implements the statutory endorsement of merging historical bargaining units.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1.                  The Washington State Patrol is a general government agency of the state of Washington within the meaning of RCW 41.80.005(1).

2.                  The Washington Public Employees Association, an employee organization within the meaning of RCW 41.80.005(7), is the exclusive bargaining representative of two separate bargaining units of non-supervisory employees of the Washington State Patrol.

3.                  The parties have stipulated that the non-supervisory employees in the employer’s Electronic Communications System Tech Shop and the non-supervisory employees in the employer’s Electronic Services Section have similar duties, skills and working conditions, and share a community of interest.

4.                  No facts have been discovered or brought to the attention of the Executive Director which call into question the propriety of the proposed merger described in these findings of fact.

CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

1.                  The Public Employment Relations Commission has jurisdiction in this matter under Chapter 41.80 RCW and WAC 391-25-426.

2.                  The merger of the bargaining units described in paragraph 3 of the foregoing findings of fact will result in an appropriate unit for the purposes of collective bargaining under RCW 41.80.070, implementing the fragmentation and merger compo­nents of that section.

ORDER

1.                  The historical bargaining units shall be merged into one bargaining unit described as follows:

All non-supervisory civil service employees of the Washington State Patrol in the Electronic Communi­cations System Tech Shop and Electronic Services Section branches of its table of organization, excluding confidential employees, internal audi­tors, supervisors, Washington Management Service employees, and employees included in any other bargaining unit.

2.                  The Washington Public Employees Association has been, and shall continue to be, the exclusive bargaining representative of all employees in the merged unit.

ISSUED at Olympia, Washington, on this 20^th day of January, 2004.

PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS COMMISSION

[SIGNED]

MARVIN L. SCHURKE, Executive Director

This order will be the final order of the agency on the issue addressed unless a notice of appeal is filed with the Commission under WAC 391-35-210.