A recent Massachusetts Appeals Court decision overturned a Department of Labor Relations ruling in a case where the Police Department replaced a sworn officer with a civilian dispatcher on the desk. The court specifically rejected the argument that a position was eliminated in dispatch for a police officer, observing that “the assignment to dispatch/desk duties [...]
The Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that a municipality cannot require an employee to work for it a minimum number of years prior to retirement as a condition of that municipality contributing toward the cost of the employee’s retiree health insurance. As long as the employee is eligible for retirement benefits under c. 32, the [...]
The recent DLR case City of Boston and SEIU Local 888 (MUP-12-2332) presented the question whether the City had bargained to impasse about a transfer of bargaining unit work (crime scene lighting trucks) from the SEIU to Boston Police Detectives. The City gave the Union four weeks’ notice of its proposed change, met with the [...]
On March 25, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 6-3 decision in Young v. United Parcel Service, Inc., which recognizes that employers who fail to accommodate employees with pregnancy-related job restrictions may be held liable for pregnancy discrimination if they accommodate non-pregnant employees with similar restrictions. NMP first reported this case in August, 2014 when [...]
Some municipal and school officials have expressed concern about the prospect of the U.S. Department of Labor substantially raising the dollar threshold at which employees can be exempted from the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The current threshold, unchanged for decades at about $23,000/year, could be raised to $42,000 or even $52,000 [...]
It has been four years since the Commonwealth Employment Relations Board ("CERB") took the view that municipal employers have a duty to bargain health insurance contribution rates of certain retirees, i.e. current employees who will retire in the future. Under CERB’s logic, an employer could unilaterally alter the health insurance contribution rate of persons already [...]
On January 7, 2015, in one of his last acts as governor, Deval Patrick signed into law “An Act Relative to Parental Leave”, which expands the Massachusetts Maternity Leave Act (“MMLA”) (M.G.L. c. 149, §105D) and makes it gender neutral. The MMLA requires employers with six or more employees to provide full-time female employees of [...]
The Appeals Court in Town of Swansea v. Swansea Coalition of Police Local 220, MCOP, affirmed a Superior Court decision vacating an arbitrator’s award which had reduced a police officer’s dismissal to a 90-day suspension. Arbitrator Arnold Marrow’s award violated public policy because the officer’s conduct as found by the arbitrator constituted a felony. The [...]
Good news for municipal employers. Although the Massachusetts minimum wage increased to $9.00 an hour on January 1, 2015, the law has been interpreted not to apply to public employees. The increase, which is the first minimum wage increase in the state since 2008, is one of three annual increases that will raise the minimum [...]
On November 4, 2014, Massachusetts voters passed Ballot Question 4, providing earned paid sick leave for employees. Effective July 1, 2015, employers with 11 or more employees will be required to allow all employees to accrue and use up to 40 hours of paid sick leave per calendar year. As it now stands, for purposes [...]