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Luzerne County government recently dodged quite a bullet.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled March 25 that the county is not required to hire back 39 workers and give them an estimated $6 million in back pay and benefits due to the outsourcing of their jobs five years ago.
“The county is pleased that this matter is finally resolved and that all parties can finally move on,” said county Chief Solicitor C. David Pedri.
The costly threat has been lingering since May 2010, when unionized employees of the county’s now-defunct Workforce Investment Development Agency filed an unfair labor practice claim against the county.
The agency shut down because its work overseeing employment programs for adults and underprivileged youth was awarded to outside contractors by the Luzerne-Schuylkill Workforce Investment Board. The board publicly sought proposals, and the agency’s bid to keep the work did not make the cut.
The union representing these county workers — the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, or AFSCME — maintained prior county commissioners should have intervened in the outsourcing plans, saying the workforce board’s role was “merely to ‘advise and assist’” the county with job placement and training programs.
The collective bargaining agreement requires the county to negotiate the contracting out of work handled by union employees.
Prior commissioners argued the outsourcing was beyond their control because the board is independent and has jurisdiction over contracting matters.
A state hearing examiner sided with the union and ordered the county to rehire the workers and pay all their lost wages and benefits, prompting an appeal by the county.
The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board reversed the hearing examiner’s order in April 2012, determining the county did not control the workforce board or outsourcing.
The union challenged the ruling to Commonwealth Court, which affirmed the board’s decision, court paperwork says.
The union appealed to the state Supreme Court, resulting in the recent ruling upholding the Commonwealth Court decision.
AFSCME union representative Paula Schnelly said she disagrees with the Supreme Court ruling because she believes the union presented strong evidence the county had power to stop the outsourcing.
“It just doesn’t seem logical. It’s very disappointing,” Schnelly said.
County commissioners and now council members appoint members to the 33-person Workforce Investment Board, known as the WIB, which receives millions of dollars in state and federal funding annually to operate two CareerLink offices in Luzerne County and provide other job programs.
It’s unclear whether the payment of lost wages and benefits would have had to come out of this pot of state and federal funding or the county’s strained general fund operating budget.
In addition to the potential cost, county officials have questioned how they would reinstate the large group of employees who had performed a service no longer needed in-house.