Watertown, NY Files Action to Prevent Arbitration of Fire Captain Demotions

WATERTOWN — The city has filed legal action against its firefighters in an attempt to prevent arbitration of the city’s decision to demote eight fire captains as part of a restructuring plan designed to save money.

The city filed a petition Tuesday in state Supreme Court against the Watertown Professional Firefighters Association Local 191 seeking a permanent stay of arbitration, which the union demanded in July through a filing with the state Public Employment Relations Board.

The city and its firefighters have been embroiled in a two-year contract dispute that came to a head in May when City Manager Sharon A. Addison demoted captains after identifying “the disproportionate level of officer supervision in the department,” pointing out it’s made up of 27 officers and 48 firefighters, or one officer supervising 1.8 firefighters.

The former captains were briefly given the job titles of “unit leaders,” although they continued handling the same responsibilities they previously were doing while on calls, despite losing about 20 percent of their salary. The city eliminated the unit leader titles in early June.

Under a collective bargaining agreement with the city, the firefighters’ initial challenge to the move is through a four-step grievance process that begins with an informal discussion of the grievance. If it remains unresolved, the process moves to a “written statement” filed with the department head, Chief Dale C. Herman. If still unresolved, the matter is referred to Ms. Addison for a review and determination. The fourth and final step would be a demand for arbitration.

In its Supreme Court filing, the city contends that the union never adequately completed the second and third steps before jumping to arbitration. The union filed a written statement with Chief Herman, who in a June 2 response denied the grievance, citing a lack of specificity and a need for more information about the issues being grieved. Instead of responding with additional information, according to the city, the union filed a written statement with Ms. Addison, who rejected it June 15, citing reasons similar to Chief Herman’s. The city maintains that without specific information about what the union is grieving, the city is left “guessing” about what the disputed issues are.

“The union’s ‘written statement’ prevents even an education evaluation of whether there is an agreement to arbitrate this dispute,” the city said in its petition. “The ‘written statement’ is so lacking in detail that it is impossible to ascertain what action the union is even grieving.”

According to court documents, the union insists that the city “knows full well what actions it has taken with respect to the captain’s position” and that the disputed issues have been discussed extensively amongst city officials, as well as in the media. The union believes that a decision on whether it has satisfied its contractual agreements for filing a grievance could be another issue decided through arbitration.

In addition to the alleged violations of the grievance process, the city contends, among other things, that the union cannot demand arbitration regarding the retitling of captains as unit leaders because that job title did not exist at the time the union’s grievance was filed and no longer exists.

The union also is seeking arbitration over salaries for firefighters who perform “out of title” work, or work that would ordinarily be performed by someone of higher rank. The city maintains that the collective bargaining agreement “expressly” excludes salary disputes from the grievance and arbitration process. It also maintains that staffing levels and organizational structure are not defined or referenced in the agreement, so it cannot be determined through arbitration whether the city violated the agreement related to these issues.

The most recent collective bargaining agreement covered the period of July 1, 2011, through June 30, 2014, but without a new agreement in place, terms of the expired agreement are extended.

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