On July 24, 2020, Governor Charlie Baker signed legislation (“Section 3 of Chapter 124 of the Session Laws of 2020”) amending M.G.L c. 4, § 7 to include Juneteenth as State holiday. As Employers gear up for or begin successor contract negotiations, it is important they understand the ramifications of the new Juneteenth holiday on their collective bargaining position, as set forth below.
As far as Massachusetts Law is concerned, Municipal Employers are not obligated by Law to provide employees with holiday pay/leave for Juneteenth. But they may be obligated to do so under their respective collective bargaining agreement(s) (“CBA”). The extent of that obligation largely depends on the language of the CBA. For instance, if the CBA only lists the paid holidays which bargaining unit members are entitled to and Juneteenth is not enumerated as one of the paid holidays, the Union will have to bargain with the Employer to include Juneteenth as a paid holiday. On the other hand, if the CBA already states that employees get whatever holidays the Common-wealth recognizes, employees automatically get Juneteenth as a paid holiday.
In Town of Millbury, 47 MLC 2, (July 7, 2020), a particularly timely arbitration decision, Arbitrator Timothy Hatfield was tasked with determining whether the Town of Millbury (“Town”) violated the parties’ CBA when it failed to compensate bargaining unit members with holiday pay for Christmas Eve after President Trump issued an order designating December 24, 2019 as a holiday for federal government employees. Arbitrator Hatfield rightly found that the Town did not violate the contract in part because the parties’ con-tract “clearly and unambiguously lists the twelve paid holidays which bargaining unit members are entitled to” and Christmas Eve is not on that list.
As evidenced by this decision, an Employer’s obligation to provide holiday pay for existing and/or new State holidays ultimately depends on the language in their CBAs.
