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Public Employee Labor Relations Board

No. 98-038

APPEAL OF AMALGAMATED TRANSIT UNION, LOCAL 717

(New Hampshire Public Employee Labor Relations Board)

November 23, 1999

Craig, Wenners & Craig, P.A., of Manchester (Vincent A. Wenners, Jr. and Stephanie Stergiou Ferro on the brief, and Mr. Wenners orally), for the petitioner.

Devine, Millimet & Branch, P.A., of Manchester (Diane Murphy Quinlan and John E. Friberg, Jr. on the brief, and Mark T. Broth orally), for the respondent, Manchester Transit Authority.

JOHNSON, J. The petitioner, Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 717 (union), appeals a decision of the public employee labor relations board (PELRB), in which the PELRB refused to implement an arbitrator's award ordering the respondent, the Manchester Transit Authority (MTA), to reinstate two union employees to their positions after testing positive for drug use by vacating the arbitrator's award. We affirm and remand.

The MTA is a public employer of driver-operators, mechanics, maintenance personnel, and other employees. The union is the duly certified bargaining unit for MTA employees. The MTA and the union entered into a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that included a grievance process concluding with final and binding arbitration.

The arbitrator found the following facts. In addition to providing general passenger service on established bus routes, the MTA provides bus services under a contract with the Manchester School District for students in the Manchester public schools. MTA buses used for school purposes carry signs indicating that the buses are within a drug-free zone. See RSA 193-B:1, :2 (Supp. 1998).

Ted Urban was employed in the summer of 1992 as a mechanic at the MTA garage. His duties included bus repair and maintenance, retrieval of broken buses, and plowing snow with a large dump truck at the garage lot. Urban tested positive for marijuana in a random drug test. He was suspended on June 26, 1995, and was advised that, under federal regulations issued under the Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act of 1991, he would be randomly tested six times in the next year and that he would be terminated if he tested positive a second time. On April 3, 1996, Urban again tested positive. He was suspended on April 11, 1996, when the employer learned he tested positive, and on May 22, 1996, was terminated by the MTA.

Dave Conway was hired by the MTA in September 1985 and worked as a bus driver. Except for one minor, non-drug-related incident in 1987, Conway had a clean disciplinary record with the MTA. Conway's name was randomly selected by computer, and he was taken while driving his route on May 26, 1996, and tested for drug use. On June 6, 1996, the MTA suspended him because his test results were positive for canniboids, and ultimately terminated Conway on June 19, 1996. Conway acknowledged that he smoked a marijuana cigarette the weekend before he was tested.

The arbitrator also found that in 1990, the MTA "adopted a policy stating that use of drugs in the workplace was prohibited and that employees who violated the policy were subject to discipline up to termination." Not until June 26, 1996, however, did the MTA adopt a formal "zero tolerance" drug policy requiring discharge on the first incident of an employee testing positive for drugs.

In February and March of 1997, an arbitrator heard the grievances filed in the Urban and Conway discharges. In both cases, the issues involved whether each employee was discharged for just cause. The arbitrator found that "[n]either grievant was tested because of alleged impairment in his job performance, and there is no evidence that either grievant was at any time impaired because of drug use."

The arbitrator reversed the disciplinary terminations in both cases for several reasons. First, the MTA's "zero tolerance" drug policy, adopted on June 26, 1996, was not in effect when either Urban or Conway was discharged. Second, with respect to the Conway matter, termination after testing positive once was inconsistent with the CBA provision that declared "when discipline is to be given, it shall be given in a fair and progressive manner for repeated offenses." Third, the Manchester School District merely prohibits "[a]ny one, including bus drivers and monitors, caught under the influence (even once)" from interacting with students. Fourth, the arbitrator found that neither employee was under the influence while on the job. Fifth, federal transportation regulations "do not prescribe the level of discipline to be imposed when an employee tests positive for drugs on one occasion without any evidence of impairment." Finally, the arbitrator found that the MTA failed to discipline the employees within the time period prescribed in the CBA.

We need not decide whether the MTA's actions in disciplining these employees contravened the express language of the limitations period outlined in the CBA because, even if it did, we hold that strong public policy would prevent enforcement of that CBA provision.

The arbitrator found that there was "no evidence that either grievant was at any time impaired because of drug use," and ordered the MTA to reinstate the employees to their former positions. The MTA filed an unfair labor practice (ULP) complaint with the PELRB based on the arbitrator's award reinstating the two employees, and the union cross-complained that the MTA committed an ULP by rejecting the arbitrator's decision. The PELRB found the union committed an ULP because the arbitrator's award was contrary to public policy, vacated the arbitrator's award, and dismissed the union's ULP claim. The PELRB found that "in 1990, the [MTA] had adopted a policy prohibiting the use of drugs in the workplace and stating that violators were subject to discipline up to termination."

"[A]dministrative agencies are granted only limited and special subject matter jurisdiction . . . ." 4 R. Wiebusch, New Hampshire Practice, Civil Practice and Procedure