High v. COM., UNEMPLOY. COMP. BD. OF REV.High v. COM., UNEMPLOY. COMP. BD. OF REV.
PAPADAKOS, Justice.
Unemployment Compensation Claimants, Robert G. High, et al., representative of other claimants similarly situated, appeal a Commonwealth Court order 67 Pa.Cmwlth. 472, 447 A.2d 701 (1982) affirming the Unemployment Compensation Review Board‘s denial of their benefit claims. We affirm.
Claimants are teachers in Reading School District and are represented for collective bargaining purposes by the Reading Education Association (REA), as are all other teachers in the district. REA and the District were parties to a
On September 5, 1978, the beginning of the new school term, the District unilaterally instituted a longer working day for the teachers than had existed under the expired agreement. In spite of this, Claimants and the other teachers reported to work because REA and the District were at that time engaged in a collective bargaining impasse proceeding under the Public Employe Relations Act1, and REA reasonably believed that the Act prohibited a strike prior to the impasse proceeding‘s completion.2
By letter of October 13, 1978, REA offered to continue working past the impasse procedure exhaustion-date of October 24, 1978, under the terms and conditions of the expired agreement, and also to provide twenty-four (24) hours notice of a work stoppage. The District did not accept this offer. On October 20, 1978, REA reiterated its offer by “Mailgram,” expanding the strike-notice period to fifty (50) hours. The District also rejected this offer. Finally, by letter of October 24, 1978, REA again offered to continue working under the expired agreement‘s terms and conditions. Because the students’ scheduled day then extended beyond that of the teachers under the expired agreement, the offer was madе on condition that the District make arrangements for student supervision at the end of the school day. This letter was hand-delivered to the District Superintendent of Schools, Jack Neal, who assured REA that the requested supervision would be provided.
The teachers reported to work on October 25, 1978, but the District failed to provide the requested supervision. That evening REA voted a work-stoppage because of concern over the lack of student supervision and, also, because of indications by the District that teacher salaries would be
Two days later, on October 28, 1978, the District offered in writing to resume operations under the terms and conditions of the expired agreement, but REA rejected the offer that same day. The issue arises whether this rejection by the REA converted the status of the work stoppage from a lock-out to a strike. The teachers did not return to work throughout the labor dispute, which was settled on November 28, 1978.
The Bureau (now Office) of Employment Security denied the Claimants’ subsequent applications for benefits, determining that their unemployment was the result of a strike, and concluding that they were thus disqualified for benefits by Section 402(d) of the Unemployment Compensation Law3. That section provides a benefit disqualification for those whose unemployment is due to a work stoppage other than a lock-out. The Referee reversed, but provided no clear rationale in his decision for the reversal. The Board reversed the Referee‘s decision, stating that benefit determinations under the Unemployment Compensation Law are to be made on a week-by-week basis and that the conditions existing in a given week are determinative of benefit eligibility, and held that REA‘s rejection of the District‘s offer constituted the work stoppage a strike and not a lock-out and, thus, rendered the Claimants ineligible for benefits respecting the weeks which included and followed the rejection. Commonwealth Court affirmed, and this appeal followed.
The Claimants argue that the Board committed an error of law, contending that the initial cause of a work
Each week of unemployment is the subject of a separate claim, the validity of which is determined by a consideration of conditions existing within that week; consequently, a work stoppage which is initially a strike may subsequently be converted into a lockout. Burger Unemployment Compensation Case, 168 Pa.Super. 89, 91, 93, 77 A.2d 737 (1951).
This rule is in accord with our Legislature‘s clear mandate, as embodied in Section 402, that all determinations of benefits eligibility be made on a week-by-week basis. What the Claimants ask us to do, in essence, is to create an exception for Section 402‘s Subsection (d) so that determinations under that subsection are made differently than those under the others. This we will not do, for it would be contrary not оnly to the legislative mandate, but also to the policies underlying the Unemployment Compensation Law.
The policy underlying Section 402(d) is one of discouraging employers or employees from initiating or continuing work stoppages which, of course, defeat the Law‘s objectives of reducing and preventing unemployment and of promoting reemployment of unemployed workers. See Section 205 of the Law.5 Adoption of the rule proposed by the Claimants would artificially foist responsibility for the continuance of a work stoppage upon those who may be
Affirmed.
LARSEN, J., filed a dissenting opinion in which NIX, C.J., and ZAPPALA, J., joined.
LARSEN, Justice, dissenting.
I dissent.
In this appeal, Robert G. High1 (appellant) appeals from a judgment of the Commonwealth Court2 which affirmed the decision of the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review (Board) denying him benefits pursuant to Section 402(d) of the Unemployment Compensation Law.3
The facts as found by the Board establish that the appellant is a professional employee of the Reading School District (School District) and a member of the Reading Education Association (Association). The Association is the collective bargaining agent for a bargaining unit with the School District.
A collective bargaining agreement dated October 27, 1976 between the School District and the Association expired on
During the course of the on-going negotiations, the School District informed the Association that the work day which appellant and his fellow Association members had worked over the term of the expired аgreement was no longer satisfactory. The School District announced that beginning with the start of the new school year on September 5, 1978, the workday would be extended to eight hours. During the three years covered by the expired agreement, neither the appellant nor any of the other Association members worked longer than 7 hours and 25 minutes a day.5 The appellant and the Association did not agree to thе enlarged work day and reiterated an offer, which had been repeatedly proposed during the negotiations, to continue to work under the same terms and conditions as existed under the expired agreement. Having failed to conclude an agreement and reasonably believing that the law prohibits a strike during the mediation and fact finding process, the appellant and his fellow Association members reported for work on September 5, 1978 and worked the lengthened workday from then through October 25, 1978.
The appellant‘s application for unemploymеnt compensation benefits was denied by the Bureau of Employment Security7 for the reason that his unemployment was due to a strike. The appellant appealed this determination and the referee reversed the finding that appellant was unemployed
The question this Court is called upon to decide is whether the action of the school district in offering to reopen the schools and re-establish the status quo as it existed under the provisions of the expired agreement, made two days after the work stoppage began, converted what was a lockout into a strike? The majority concludes that the lockout was converted to a strike with the consequеnce that the appellant is not entitled to unemployment compensation benefits. Citing Westinghouse Electric Corporation v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 187 Pa. Super. 403, 144 A.2d 679 (1958), the majority states:
Each week of unemployment is the subject of a separate claim, the validity of which is determined by a consideration of conditions existing within that week, consequently, a work stoppage which is initially a strike may subsequently be converted into a lockout. Burger Unemployment Compensation Case, 168 Pa.Super. 89, 91, 93, 77 A.2d 737 (1951)
I find this reasoning curious in that the conclusion that “a work stoppage which is initially a strike may be subsequently converted into a lockout” or vice versa, simply does not follow from the premise that “each week of unemployment is the subject of a separate claim, the validity of which is determined by a consideration of conditions existing within
In Vrotney Unemployment Compensations Case, 400 Pa. 440, 163 A.2d 91 (1960) we adoptеd a test to distinguish a strike from a lockout for purposes of unemployment compensation benefits.
“Have the employees offered to continue working for a reasonable time under the pre-existing terms and conditions of employment so as to avert a work stoppage pending the final settlement of the contract negotiations; and has the employer agreed to permit work to continue for a reasonable time under the pre-existing terms and conditions of employment pending further negotiations? If the employer refuses to so extend the expiring contract and maintain the status quo, then the resulting work stoppage constitutes a `lockout’ and the disqualification for unemployment compensation benefits in the case of a `stoppage of work because of a labor disputе’ does not apply.”
Id., 400 Pa. at 444-45, 163 A.2d at 93-94. We have consistently applied this test in unemployment cases involving a labor dispute. See: Unemployment Compensation Board of Review v. Sun Oil Company, 476 Pa. 589, 383 A.2d 519 (1978); Philco Corporation v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 430 Pa. 101, 242 A.2d 454 (1968). See also: School District of The City of Erie v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 48 Pa.Cmwlth. 460, 409 A.2d 982 (1980); Unemployment Compensation Board of Review v. Borger Steel Co., 30 Pa.Cmwlth. 75, 372 A.2d 969 (1977); Toma v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 4 Pa.Cmwlth. 38, 285 A.2d 201 (1971); Small Tube Produсts, Inc. v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 198 Pa.Super. 308, 181 A.2d 854 (1962).
In Philco Corporation v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, supra, we further defined the test to isolate the responsibility for a work stoppage and distinguish between a strike and a lockout as follows:
“Since the purpose of our unemployment compensation system is to compensate an individual when work has been denied him through no fault of his own, logically the test of whether a work stoрpage resulted from a strike or a lockout requires us to determine which side, union or management, first refused to continue operations under the status quo after the contract had technically expired, but while negotiations were continuing.” (emphasis supplied)
Id., 430 Pa. at 103, 242 A.2d at 455.
The test which we employed in Vrotney and refined in Philco leads to the conclusion that he who first refuses to continue to operate under the status quo ultimately endures the responsibility for the work stoppage.
Applying this test to the facts of the instant case, the appellant and his fellow Association members were willing, at all times prior to the work stoppage, to continue to work under the terms and conditions which prevailed under the expired collective bargaining agreement. After repeatedly offering to continue working under the status quo before the start of the new school term on September 5, 1978, the Association reiterated the offer, in writing, immediately prior to October 24, 1978, the day which marked the exhaustion of mediation and fact finding. At no time previous to the work stoppage did the School District agree to the Association‘s offer. In this background of the Association‘s offer and the School District‘s refusal to accept the offer,
I would hold that the School District‘s belated offer does not extinguish its initial responsibility. Its actions, coming after the commenсement of the work stoppage does not restore the parties to the positions they respectively held prior to the stoppage. Responsibility for the work stoppage and thus, the determination of whether the stoppage is a strike or a lockout is established at its inception. Actions taken after the cessation of work activity cannot erase the initial responsibility and placе the parties in the positions they previously occupied. If it were otherwise, responsibility for a work stoppage would be subject to repeated change. A lockout on Monday could be a strike on Wednesday, a lockout again on Friday, and so on and so forth. This would tend to encourage parties to continually jockey for position at the expense of sincere negotiations toward a settlement. Where the labor dispute involves a School District and teachers, as it does here, the education of the Commonwealth‘s children is also at stake. Fixing responsibility at the outset forces the parties to act responsibly, sincerely and in good faith at the initial stages of a potential work stoppage. Conduct on the part of either side which fails to meet this standard results in responsibility for the stoppage (lockout or strike) and the legal ramifications following therefrom. I would reverse the order of the Commonwealth Court.
NIX, C.J., and ZAPPALA, J., join in this dissenting opinion.