Wapato School District, Decision 6271 (PECB, 1998))

On February 25, 1998, Joyce Pendleton filed a petition for clarification of an existing bargaining unit with the Public Employment Relations Commission, seeking exclusion of four office-clerical positions from a bargaining unit of Wapato School District employees represented by the Wapato Association of Educational Office Personnel, WAOEP/CPEA. Enclosed with the petition was a letter from Superintendent of Schools Pete VanderWegen, supporting the proposed exclusions on the basis that the employers were “confidential” employees. The petition was amended on March 6, 1998, to exclude the employer as a co-petitioner.

The petition, as amended, contains a fatal defect. With the removal of the employer, the petition is now filed by or on behalf of the four individuals who are seeking to be excluded from the bargaining unit. WAC 391-35-010 provides:

WAC 391-35-010 Petition for clarification of an existing bargaining unit-Who may file. A petition for clarification of an existing bargaining unit may be filed by the employer, the exclusive bargaining representative, or by the parties jointly.

Individual employees lack legal standing to file or process a unit clarification petition.

The petitioners were given a period of 14 days to file an amended petition that stated a cause of action, or the petition would be dismissed. Nothing further has been received from the petitioner.

NOW, THEREFORE, it is

ORDERED

The petition filed in the above-captioned matter is DISMISSED as procedurally defective.

Issued at Olympia, Washington, this 27^th of April, 1998.

PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS COMMISSION

[SIGNED]

MARVIN L. SCHURKE, Executive Director

This order may be appealed by filing a petition for review with the Commission pursuant to WAC 391-35-210.