CT to pay back higher wages after “bad faith” bargaining

Connecticut will have to pay retroactive annual increment wage increases for a group of judicial employees following a Board of Labor Relations decision that found the state negotiated in bad faith when it entered into an interest arbitration agreement with the unionized employees in 2022.

The affected judicial employees – part of bargaining unit 58 (BU 58), which joined the Judicial Professional Employees Union (JPEU) in 2018 – were awarded a 3 percent wage increase, plus an annual increment, which generally amounts to 2 percent, by an arbitrator in 2021 after negotiations with that bargaining unit reached an impasse.

The State argued the annual increments for BU 58 employees would be too costly during interest arbitration negotiations, according to the Labor Board’s decision, but the arbitrator determined the State was obligated to pay the annual increments for the 2021-2022 contract year as part of the negotiated contract.

That never happened, according to the complaint. While the other bargaining units covered under JPEU received general wage increases and annual increments, bargaining unit 58 did not receive their annual increment, resulting in a complaint to the labor board by the union that alleged the State had bargained in bad faith for not implementing the interest arbitration award.

“Viewing the provision as a whole and giving the words their ordinary meaning, we find that the State’s obligation is clear and unambiguous. Top step lump sum payments and annual increments are components of the three percent increase to the base annual salary and apply to the entire JPEU unit,” the labor board wrote. “The Union contends that the State’s decision to withhold annual increments from BU 58 was in subjective bad faith. We agree.”

According to the contract, a wage re-opener for the 2021-2022 contract period would include negotiations over the general wage increase, but “annual increments and top lump sum payments will be paid in accordance with existing practice.”

Although the State had argued during the arbitration process that the annual increments were too expensive, it conversely argued before the Labor Board that annual increments were never part of arbitration negotiations.

“In our view, the State’s conduct throughout the negotiations and arbitration belies its later assertions that annual increments were not a component of the general wage reopener negotiations,” the Labor Board said.

According to a summary of the collective bargaining agreement between the Judicial Branch and JPEU presented to the Appropriations Committee in 2019, the new bargaining unit 58 would consist of 20 employees and the contract was worth $379,399.

The original interest arbitration agreement, which included all JPEU bargaining units, had a fiscal note of $4.4 million , according to the Office of Fiscal Analysis, and was approved by the House and Senate in March of 2022.

The State will now have to pay the retroactive salary increments for BU 58 members, plus attorneys’ fees for the union, and post a copy on the decision “in a conspicuous place where the employees of the bargaining unit customarily assemble.”

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