187 Pa. Super. 252 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1958
Opinion by
This is an appeal by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation from a decision of the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review granting compensation to claimant, Evan' J: Hughes. By stipulation the deter
Section 402 (d), as amended, provides in part: “An employe shall be ineligible for compensation for any week ... (d) In which his unemployment is due to a stoppage of work, which exists because of a labor dispute (other than a lock-out) at the factory, establishment or other premises at which he is or was last employed: . . .”
The basic facts as found by the board are not questioned. Westinghouse contends, however, that the board erred in drawing inferences from those facts, in ignoring certain undisputed facts, and in reaching its ultimate conclusion. In brief, the facts as found by the board are as follows. The employes involved are production and maintenance workers at the Westinghouse plant at 3001 Market Street, Philadelphia. They became unemployed on January 19, 1954, when they ceased work in protest against the promotion of three employes. The employes are members of Local 111 of the International Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers, CIO (IUE), and until November 4, 1949, had been affiliated with the United Electrical,
From these findings the board concluded that the work stoppage was due to a lockout and compensation was allowed.
Findings of fact made by the compensation authorities are binding on appeal if supported by the evidence. McGinnis Unemployment Compensation Case, 184 Pa. Superior Ct. 95, 101, 132 A. 2d 749. The basic findings in this case are not in dispute. Our review is to determine whether the conclusion reached by the board is supported by its findings. See Martinez Unemployment Compensation Case, 186 Pa. Superior Ct. 50, 51, 140 A. 2d 351.
Where the unemployment for which compensation is sought resulted from a labor dispute, the controlling question is whether the final cause and responsibility or fault for the work stoppage, within the meaning of the policy section of the Law (section 3, 43 PS §752)-
In determining the final responsibility for the work stoppage, the justification for the act of the employer which precipitated the strike or the justification for the demands of the employes is generally not considered by the compensation authorities or by this Court. Leto Unemployment Compensation Case, 176 Pa. Superior Ct. 9, 15, 106 A. 2d 652; Hogan Unemployment Compensation Case, 169 Pa. Superior Ct. 554, 561, 83 A. 2d 386. Although the employes may be justified in a given situation in refusing to work for collective bargaining reasons, the work stoppage may still be a strike for unemployment compensation purposes. Hogan Unemployment Compensation Case, supra, 169 Pa. Superior Ct. 554, 563, 83 A. 2d 386. But, while the compensation authorities may not inquire into the reasonableness of the offers or demands of the parties
By section 402 (d) of the Law, 43 PS §802 (d), the Legislature clearly provided that unemployment resulting from a labor dispute was not compensable in the absence of a lockout, because the Unemployment Compensation Fund is not to be used to encourage employes to voluntarily cease work and become unemployed. Where a lockout exists the unemployment is involuntary on the part of the employe and is compensable. In cases of an ordinary strike, that is, where employes walk off the job, or in cases of an ordinary lockout, that is, where the employer closes the plant, the determination is not difficult. But difficulties arise where either of the above situations is complicated by claims that a strike becomes or is actually a lockout or a lockout becomes or is actually a strike because the employer or employes forced the work stoppage upon the other by certain actions. The compensation authorities here concluded, in effect, that the employes were forced to strike by the action of the employer. The board stated: “We think it is clear that the employer unilaterally attempted to change the existing terms and conditions of employment when it announced on March 13th that the provisions of the ‘proposed Local Supplement’ would be enforced on and after March 16, 1953. The facts show that the company on several occasions attempted to enforce the provisions of this proposed Local Supplement. The union resisted the enforcement of these changes in working conditions and through the filing of grievances was able to have amicable settlements of the various proposed actions. On January 18, 1954, the company again applied the provisions of the proposed Local Supplement and after the employees began a work stoppage in protest against this action, the company re
While the board did not expressly refer to the Leto Unemployment Compensation Case, supra, 176 Pa. Superior Ct. 9, 106 A. 2d 652, it actually applied the holding of that case, that is, the maintenance of pre-existing terms and conditions of employment for a reasonable time pending settlement of a labor dispute, as the sole and universal rule in work stoppage cases.
' It is generally true that a work stoppage may be a lockout where a collective bargaining agreement has expired or is about to expire and the employer refuses to permit work to continue under the pre-existing terms and conditions of employment for a reasonable time in order to avert a work stoppage pending settlement of the labor dispute. Leto Unemployment Compensation Case, supra, 176 Pa. Superior Ct. 9, 15, 106 A. 2d 652; McGinnis Unemployment Compensation Case, supra, 184 Pa. Superior Ct. 95, 132 A. 2d 749. Cf. Burleson Unemployment Compensation Case, supra, 173 Pa. Superior Ct. 527, 530, 531, 533, 98 A. 2d 762.
But, while a collective bargaining agreement is in force, a strike does not become a lockout merely because an employer takes some action which the employes believe to be erroneous or contrary to their rights, express or implied, under that agreement. Employes who cease working because of a labor dispute founded upon an alleged breach of contract by the employer are not always entitled to benefits. Byerly Unemployment Compensation Case, supra, 171 Pa. Supe
The findings of fact of the board in the present instance establish beyond question that the employes ceased working - because they did not agree with the company that the three employes who were upgraded were the proper employes for the promotions. Work was available to the employes who went out on strike because of this labor dispute on the same terms and conditions existing prior to the strike with the sole exception that three employes were promoted. Only the three employes who claim to have been ignored in the promotions were directly affected; the balance of the employes could only be said to have been affected indirectly in the sense that the action of the company failed to abide with the broad seniority provisions of the terms of employment. The promotion of three employes in preference to three other employes was at most a matter calling for redress under the contractual provisions relating to the settlement of disputes or resort to the available legal measures. These remedies were available. Although there was no local supplement to the national agreement effective October 1, 1950, there was provision in the national agreement concerning the upgrading of employes on the basis of seniority as well as a procedure for settlement of disputes. These procedures the union refused to follow to a conclusion before going on strike even though it followed the same procedures in at least two prior instances in which the policies introduced by the company on March 13, 1953, resulted in a dispute between management and labor.
Employes who claim that the employer has breached the obligations of his contract must pursue the reme
The decision of the Board of Review is reversed.
The bureau and the referee allowed compensation benefits, The company appealed to the Board of Review on March 17, 1955; the board’s decision is dated August 6, 1957. Claims were paid before review by the board. See Pennsylvania State Chamber of Commerce v. Torquato, 386 Pa. 306, 125 A. 2d 755.
The proposed local supplement was initially accepted, with certain agreed modifications, by Local 111, but was rejected by the national organization.
See Almada v. Administrator, Unemployment Compensation Act, 137 Conn. 380, 77 A. 2d 765, 771; 81 C.J.S., Social Security and Public Welfare, §188, pp. 281, 282.
See Almada v. Administrator, Unemployment Compensation Act, 137 Conn. 380. 77 A. 2d 765, 771, 81 C.J.S., Social Security and Public Welfare, §188, pp. 281, 282.
The situation is to some degree complicated by the fact that there was a national agreement signed and in effect but no new local supplement. Although the national agreement was not explicit in every detail it clearly provided a grievance procedure which should have been employed instead of going on strike.
The breach of an implied condition of employment should be remedied through the available contractual, legal, equitable, or administrative procedures, not by the payment of benefits. Morris Unemployment Compensation Case, 169 Pa. Superior Ct. 564, 568, 569, 83 A. 2d 394.