An Allegheny County court employees association was within its contractual seven-day limit in challenging the county’s attempt to raise payroll deductions for health benefits, despite the county providing notice of its intent to implement the new deductions several weeks earlier, the Commonwealth Court has ruled.
A unanimous three-judge panel found May 2 in Allegheny County v. Allegheny Court Association of Professional Employees that an arbitrator’s award disallowing the county’s increase in member payroll contributions rationally derived from the parties’ collective bargaining agreement and passed the essence test. Although the association didn’t file its grievance regarding the benefits change until 75 work days after it was implemented, notice of the event giving rise to the grievance didn’t occur until the county confirmed that collective bargaining would not continue and the association would need to address the issue through arbitration, the court said.
