Opinion
Argued April 10, 1980
June 19, 1980.
Policemen and firemen — Bindings arbitration award — Arbitration — Act of 1968, June 24, P.L. 237 — Public Employe Relations Act, Act 1970, July 23, P.L. 563 — Jurisdiction of courts of common pleas.
1. Courts of common pleas have no jurisdiction over disputes arising out of the interpretation of a binding arbitration award entered pursuant to provisions of the Act of 1970, July 23, P.L. 563, as such statute must be read in pari materia with the Public Employe Relations Act, Act 1970, July 23, P.L. 563, and such disputes must be submitted to arbitration under the comprehensive dispute resolution scheme of the latter statute. [239-40]
Argued April 10, 1980, before President Judge CRUMLISH and Judges BLATT and WILLIAMS, JR., sitting as a panel of three.
Appeal, No. 995 C.D. 1979, from the Order of the Court of Common Pleas of Delaware County in case of Jack Gordon Samuels v. Upper Darby Township, No. 78-18596.
Complaint in assumpsit in the Court of Common Pleas of Delaware County to recover sick leave and vacation pay. Defendant filed preliminary objections. Preliminary objections sustained. Complaint dismissed. LABRUM, JR., J. Plaintiff appealed to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. Held: Affirmed.
John C. McDougall, for appellant.
Jay N. Goldstein, with him Robert J. Leitzell and Alvin S. Ackerman, for appellee.
Jack Gordon Samuels (appellant) appeals from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Delaware County which dismissed his action in assumpsit against his employer, the appellee herein, Upper Darby Township (Township). The court found that it lacked jurisdiction.
In January of 1978, the appellant, who was an employee of the Township's police department, terminated his employment due to disability and requested that he be paid for his unused annual vacation of one month and for his annual paid holidays in 1978. The Township refused this request on the basis that the appellant had worked only six calendar days in 1978 and that his unused holiday and vacation time should be prorated according to the portion of the year he had actually worked.
Both parties agree that compensation for holidays and paid vacations was the subject of a binding arbitration award between the Township and the union representing the members of the police force pursuant to the Act of June 24, 1968, P.L. 237, as amended, (Act 111), 43 P. S. § 217.1 et seq. The appellant contended that he was entitled to compensation for 1978 holidays and vacation days under the arbitration award, and that the Township had breached the award by denying his request therefor. The court below sustained the Township's preliminary objections and stated that courts of common pleas lack original jurisdiction over disputes pertaining to the interpretation of collective bargaining agreements or arbitration awards achieved pursuant to Act 111. We must affirm.
Act 111 provides for collective bargaining and binding arbitration for policemen and firemen but is generally lacking in the specific provisions normally found in a collective bargaining statute. We therefore held in Geriot v. Council of Borough of Darby, 38 Pa. Commw. 337, 394 A.2d 1298 (1978), that Act 111 is to be read in pari materia with the Public Employe Relations Act (PERA), Act of July 23, 1970, P.L. 563, 43 P. S. § 1101.101 et seq., which provides a comprehensive scheme for dispute resolution. Such a consonant reading of Act 111 and the PERA, we believe, reveals that common pleas courts do not have jurisdiction here, for Section 903 of the PERA conclusively requires the "[a]rbitration of disputes or grievances arising out of the interpretation of the provision of a collective bargaining agreement."
Prior to this Court's holding in Geriot v. Council of Borough of Darby, 38 Pa. Commw. 337, 394 A.2d 1298 (1978) it had been held that, because Act 111 does not provide for mandatory arbitration of disputes over the interpretation of labor contracts, a party to such a labor dispute could seek an interpretation of an Act 111 contract in the courts of common pleas in an assumpsit action. Flood v. Borough of Canonsburg, 28 Pa. Commw. 248, 368 A.2d 348 (1977).
43 P. S. § 1101.903.
Because this dispute does arguably involve the interpretation of a binding arbitration award, we believe that arbitration is required and that access to the courts of common pleas can be obtained only upon a petition for review of the arbitrator's decision pursuant to Section 933(b) of the Judicial Code, 42 Pa. C.S. § 933(b). See North Star School District v. Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, 35 Pa. Commw. 429, 386 A.2d 1059 (1978).
This Section provides that "each court of common pleas shall have jurisdiction of petitions for review of an award of arbitrators appointed in conformity with statute to arbitrate a dispute between a government agency, except a Commonwealth agency, and an employee of such agency."
ORDER
AND NOW, this 19th day of June, 1980, the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Delaware County is affirmed.