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Employees that supervised, issued evaluations for and disciplined other employees had a conflict of interest precluded ?a common community of interest

Employees that supervised, issued evaluations for and disciplined other employees had a conflict of interest precluded ?a common community of interest?
Patrolman?s Benevolent Association of Southampton Town, Inc. and Town Of Southampton, PERB CP-1168.
Source: PERB Staff report

PERB Administrative Law Judge Blassman dismissed the PBA?s unit clarification and/or unit placement petition which sought a determination that the position of ?police officer part-time/seasonal? (PSPO) is or should be placed in the negotiating unit it represents.

The ALJ dismissed the unit clarification portion of the petition on the ground that the agreement?s recognition clause, which is title specific, did not indicate that the position was in the unit.

The ALJ rejected the PBA?s argument that the unit title of ?police officer? included full-time, part-time and seasonal police officers, since the Civil Service Department treated the titles as different positions and the agreement was, at best, vague regarding that issue because it did not specify whether only full-time or less than full-time employees were included in the unit. The ALJ noted that none of the other terms of the agreement or the manner in which the PBA treated the PSPOs over the years supported a finding that they were already included in the PBA?s unit.

As to unit placement, the ALJ found that, despite the existence of a strong community of interest based upon shared police duties, placement must be denied because a conflict of interest arose due to the fact that unit police officers supervised, issued evaluations for and disciplined the PSPOs

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on April 06, 2010 (boomark / email).