AUBURN — Despite recently receiving a favorable court decision on its appeal to reverse an arbitration panel’s decision, the Androscoggin County Commission tabled action Wednesday on the employee contract with the county workers’ union.
Members of the Androscoggin County Employees Association have worked without a contract for four years.
The agenda for Wednesday’s meeting included an item on the “2012-2015 Employee Contract.” Commissioners met in executive session for one hour, 17 minutes with attorney Bryan Dench. Attorney Stephen Wade was also present for roughly the first half of the executive session.
When commissioners came back to open session, they quickly tabled the matter without discussion or comment until their next meeting, May 18.
The county began collective bargaining with a union representing county workers in 1981. In the 1982 contract, the parties agreed that union workers’ discipline and discharge matters would be handled by a governmental appeals process and not through the grievance procedure of the collective bargaining agreement or to grievance arbitration.
The union sought to change that after its most recent contract expired in 2012, but negotiations on a new deal broke down.
The union filed for arbitration in 2014.
A three-member arbitration board voted 2-1 in December 2014 to change the way discipline and discharge matters are handled, allowing workers to follow the contract grievance procedure with appeal to arbitration.
The county filed a motion in Androscoggin County Superior Court to have the arbitration panel’s ruling reversed. After hearing oral arguments in November, the court recently announced its decision, siding with the county.
It was unclear why commissioners still felt the need to table a decision on the old contract, which leaves county workers without a contract for at least another couple of weeks.
In other business, commissioners renewed a Public Safety Answering Point agreement with Turner. PSAPs take calls for emergency services such as police, fire and ambulance.
ssherlock@sunjournal.com
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