Indiana Supreme Court Decision Upholds Collective Bargaining for Educators
07/22/2016
The Indiana Supreme Court ruled on the Jay Classroom Teachers Association v. Jay School Corporation and Indiana Education Employment Relations Board yesterday. Jay Classroom Teachers Association (Jay CTA) is a local affiliate of ISTA.
The court addressed two issues. The first being whether parties can bargain pay for ancillary duties that occur during the school day. The specific issue in Jay Schools was whether the parties could bargain to pay additional money to a teacher who volunteers to cover a class for another teacher during the school day. The Supreme Court affirmed the Indiana Court of Appeals decision saying parties can bargain pay for these types of duties. As a result, parties are allowed to bargain additional pay for ancillary duties that occur during the school day.
The other issue was whether it violates Indiana law to bargain a provision in a contract giving discretion to a superintendent to place a teacher hired after the start of the school year on any line of the salary scale. The court held:
The salary flexibility provision within the School’s LBO explicitly did not allow a teacher (timely or late-hired) to receive a base salary off this established scale. In other words, the provision expressly tied the superintendent’s discretion to the established, bargained-for salary scale. We conclude, therefore, that the superintendent’s authority was neither unilateral nor unfettered and so did not conflict with the Association’s right to collectively bargain to establish salaries under Indiana Code section 20-29-4-1.
The biggest concern from Jay CTA and ISTA was over contract provisions that allowed a superintendent to pay a teacher any amount the superintendent determined was necessary to hire a teacher. In some cases, this led to teachers being hired and paid less than the lowest amount on the salary scale and in others to teachers being paid above the highest amount on the scale.
The Supreme Court's decision will allow provisions to be bargained to allow administrators some discretion in setting salaries based on a bargained salary scale.
“The language used by the court will prevent our worst fear of an administrator having absolute discretion to pay a teacher any amount,” said Eric Hylton, ISTA counsel. “It is clear that any discretion will have to be tied to a collectively bargained salary scale. So, overall, while I am not satisfied with the court's decision, it at least places some limitations on how much discretion can be given to administrators to set salaries.”