HILLSBOROUGH CLASSROOM TEACHERS ASSOCIATION, INC., APPELLANT,
v.
SCHOOL BOARD OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, APPELLEE, V. FLORIDA TEACHING PROFESSION NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, BROWARD COUNTY CLASSROOM TEACHERS ASSOCIATION AND FLORIDA EDUCATION ASSOCIATION/UNITED, INTERVENORS
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The Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association appealed the dismissal of an unfair labor practice complaint against the School Board, challenging the Public Employees Relations Commission's finding that class size and minimum staffing levels are not mandatory subjects of collective bargaining under Florida law. The court affirmed, holding that decisions about class size and staffing are policy decisions reserved to the employer, though negotiations about the effects of such decisions on wages, hours, and working conditions remain mandatorily negotiable.
Class size and minimum staffing levels are not mandatory subjects of collective bargaining because they are policy decisions reserved to the public employer under § 447.209, Florida Statutes. However, negotiations regarding the effects of such decisions on wages, hours, and terms and conditions of employment remain mandatorily negotiable when an appropriate impact showing is made.
[1] Class size and minimum staffing levels are not mandatory subjects of collective bargaining as they fall outside the scope of "wages, hours, and terms and conditions of em…
[2] Decisions regarding class size and minimum staffing levels are policy decisions concerning "standards of service to be offered to the public" and are unilaterally set by…
Previewing 2 of 5 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“it is the effects of the decisions and not the decisions themselves which are mandatorily negotiable”
Establishes the core holding: employers retain unilateral power to make class size and staffing decisions, but must negotiate the effects on working conditions
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThe Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association filed a complaint with the Public Employees Relations Commission alleging unfair labor practices by th…
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McCORD, Judge.
Appellants appeal the order of the Public Employees Relations Commission (Commission) dismissing their complaint of unfair labor practice against the appellee School Board of Hillsborough County. In the order, the Commission held that class size and minimum staffing levels are not mandatory subjects of collective bargaining because they do not fall within the ambit of the phrase “wages, hours, and terms and conditions of employment” pursuant to § 447.-309(1), Florida Statutes. We affirm.
In its order on reconsideration, the Commission clarified its position, as follows:
We have not proscribed negotiation concerning any proposal touching on, relating to, or dependent upon class size or minimum staffing levels. We recognize that, for example, there may be negotiable proposals relating to class size and teacher workload, for instance those which are based upon the impact of class size upon the wages, hours, terms and conditions of employment of teachers. The proposals in this ease, however, do not contain such a relationship.
Rather, these proposals attempt to limit the employer’s prerogative to set class size and minimum staffing levels. While we recognize that such decisions quite often may directly and substantially affect the wages, hours, terms and conditions of employment of bargaining unit members, it is the effects of the decisions and not the decisions themselves which are mandatorily negotiable. Because the proposals presented in this case seek only to require the employer to surrender its Section 447.201 right to unilaterally decide class size and minimum staffing levels, negotiation over these proposals is not required. (Emphasis supplied.)
We agree with the Commission’s view that the setting of class size and minimum staffing levels are policy decisions which are incorporated in the term “standards of service to be offered to the public” which are to be unilaterally set by the public employer, pursuant to § 447.209, Florida Statutes, and thus are not mandatorily bargainable. This decision does not preclude mandatory bargaining as to the impact of the implementation of such decisions on “wages, hours, and terms and conditions of employment” when an appropriate showing of negotiable impact has been made.
AFFIRMED.
BOOTH and WENTWORTH, JJ., concur.
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City OF Miami v. F.O.P., 571 So. 2d 1309 (Fla. 3d DCA 1986)…stinction between a managerial decision not falling within the ambit of “terms and conditions of employment” and the impact of those conditions on the employee’s day-to-day life is made in Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association v. School Board, 423 So. 2d 969 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982). In that case, the court held that the setting of class size and staffing levels are policy decisions which are incorporated into the term “standards of service to be offered to the public,” listed in Section 447.-209 as items to…
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City OF NEW Port Richey v. Hillsborough Cnty. Police Benevolent Ass'n, Inc., 505 So. 2d 1096 (Fla. 2d DCA 1987)…t, (section 447.309(1), Florida Statutes (1983)), but also over any other issues that may have an impact on wages, hours or terms and conditions of employment. Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association, Inc. v. School Board of Hillsborough County, 423 So. 2d 969, 970 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983). In the absence of a waiver, an emergency or an impasse action (section 447.403, Florida Statutes (1983)), a public employer who unilaterally alters any of these mandatory subjects of collective bargaining commits an unfair…
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Sch. Dist. OF Indian River Cnty. v. Fla. Pub. Emps. Relations Comm'n & Indian River Cnty. Educ. Ass'n, 64 So. 3d 723 (Fla. 4th DCA 2011)…s, hours, terms and conditions of employment caused by and fore-seeably resulting from the implementation’ of the change at issue.” (quoting Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Ass’n v. Sch. Bd. of Hillsborough Cnty., 7 FPER ¶ 12411, 907 (1981), aff'd., 423 So. 2d 969, 970 (Fla. 1st DCA1982)). The matter proceeded to hearing before a hearing officer. At the hearing, the Union entered into evidence a series of letters it had sent to the District identifying the following effects of the new policy: (1) not all tea…