Local Representation
Does salary guide movement continue
when your contract expires?
It depends
In the Matter of County of Atlantic/In the Mat-
ter of Township of Bridgewater, Supreme Court
Docket No. 077447 (2017), the New Jersey Su-
preme Court addressed the question of wheth-
er continuing salary guide movement after the
expiration of a labor contract is negotiable. The
Court overruled the New Jersey Public Employ-
JAMES
ment Relations Commission (PERC) and held
that salary guide movement after a contract
METS
expires is negotiable, and a union can challenge
a denial through its contractual grievance and arbitration
procedure.
The Bridgewater case started back in 2013 as a grievance
that eventually made its way to arbitration. In 2013, Bridge-
water Local 174 filed a grievance alleging that the township
violated the parties’ contract and past practice by refusing to
continue salary guide movement after the contract expired.
While the matter was in arbitration, the township filed a
scope of negotiations petition with PERC, claiming that post-
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■ NOVEMBER 2017
contract salary guide movement is not negotiable and there-
fore the PBA Local’s grievance could not be arbitrated. The
arbitrator sustained the grievance, finding that the township’s
failure to pay step increases violated the parties’ contract. The
Local then had the award confirmed by the Superior Court.
Thereafter, PERC issued a decision on the township’s scope
of negotiations petition, holding that post-expiration salary
guide movement was no longer a term and condition of em-
ployment, and consequently it was no longer mandatorily ne-
gotiable and could not be arbitrated.
Local 174 appealed and, in a case that was consolidated
with a similar matter filed by unions in Atlantic County, the
Appellate Division overturned PERC’s decision. The town-
ship and PERC then appealed to the New Jersey Supreme
Court.
Focusing on the specific language in the Local contract, the
Supreme Court framed the issue on appeal as “whether the
parties to the specific collective negotiations agreements at
issue in this case were required to continue scheduled salary