State - Liquor Control Board, Decision 9327 (PSRA, 2006)

Herb Harris, Organizer, for the petitioner.

Mickie Patterson, Labor Relations Manager, for the employer.

The Washington Public Employees Association (union) filed a unit clarification petition involving certain supervisory employees of the State of Washington (employer), who are employed at the Liquor Control Board (agency). The petition was triggered by changes of job titles as part of a broader change of the classification system operated under the State Civil Service Law, Chapter 41.06 RCW. The employer stipulated to amend the description of the bargaining unit to reflect the revised classification titles.

ISSUE

The sole issue here is: Should the parties’ stipulation be accepted? The Executive Director accepts the basic premises stipulated by the parties, and amends the description of the bargaining unit in a manner consistent with agency policy.

ANALYSIS

The determination and modification of appropriate bargaining units under the Personnel System Reform Act of 2002 (PSRA) is a function delegated by the Legislature to the Commission. RCW 41.80.070. The unit determination criteria set forth by the Legislature are:

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 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 modifications 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. However, a unit is not appropriate if it includes:

(a) Both supervisors and nonsupervisory employees. A unit that includes only supervisors may be considered appropriate if a majority of the supervisory employees indicates by vote that they desire to be included in such a unit; . . .

(2) The exclusive bargaining representatives certified to represent the bargaining units existing on June 13, 2002, shall continue as the exclusive bargaining representative without the necessity of an election.

(emphasis added). Separately, the PSRA delegated restructure of the state’s classification system to the Department of Personnel and/or Washington Personnel Resources Board in RCW 41.06.139.

The bargaining unit involved in this case pre-existed the June 13, 2002, date referenced in RCW 41.80.070(1). It was limited to employees who qualified as supervisors under RCW 41.80.005(13), working in state-operated liquor stores, and so conformed with the separation requirement in RCW 41.80.070(1)(a). State - Liquor Control Board, Decision 8787 (PSRA, 2004). The employees in that unit will continue to perform the same functions under their new classification title.

Terms like “job title” or “classification title” are notably absent from the unit determination criteria set forth in RCW 41.80.070 and other collective bargaining laws administered by the Commission. The first focus in unit determination is on bodies of work (implementing the “duties” and “skills” language of the statutory unit determination criteria), and the “working conditions” of the employees (which may be implemented by vertical unit structures aligned with the employer’s table of organization). Accordingly, the Commission has historically avoided, or at least minimized, the use of current job titles in descriptions of bargaining units.

This case reinforces the Commission’s historical resistance to use of job titles in unit descriptions: Inclusion of a title in Decision 8787 has led these parties to come back to the Commission again, because of a title change that has no effect on the duties, skills, or working conditions of the employees involved. The deviation from Commission practice should not be repeated here.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1.                  The Washington State Liquor Control Board 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 is an employee organization within the meaning of RCW 41.80.005(7).

3.                  The parties have had a bargaining relationship concerning a separate bargaining unit of supervisory employees working in state liquor stores, as last modified in State - Liquor Control Board, Decision 8787 (PECB, 2004).

4.                  The employer and union stipulated in this proceeding that the classification titles for employees in the bargaining unit have been changed under the State Civil Service Law, Chapter 41.06 RCW, without a change of the duties, skills, or working conditions of the employees involved.

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

CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

1.         The Public Employment Relations Commission has jurisdiction in this matter under Chapter 41.80 RCW and Chapter 391‑35 WAC.

2.         Notwithstanding that the change of classification titles described in paragraph 4 of the foregoing findings of fact renders the unit description obsolete, the separate bargaining unit of supervisors described in paragraph 3 of the foregoing findings of fact continues to be an appropriate unit for the purposes of collective bargaining under RCW 41.80.070.

NOW, THEREFORE, it is

ORDERED

1.         The descriptions of the bargaining unit involved in this proceeding is amended to read as follows:

All supervisory employees working in liquor stores, excluding confidential employees, Washington Management Service employees, and all other employees of the employer.

2.         The Washington Public Employees Association shall continue to have status as the exclusive bargaining representative of that bargaining unit by operation of RCW 41.80.070(2).

ISSUED at Olympia, Washington, this 18th day of May, 2006.

PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS COMMISSION

[SIGNED]

MARVIN L. SCHURKE, Executive Director

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