Ortonville- An unfair labor practice charge has been filed against the village.
Les Barrett, business representative for Teamsters Local #214 representing the village’s Department of Public Works employees, filed the charge in late March with the Michigan Employment Relations Commission, claiming the village is violating the Public Employee Relations Act.
The charge stems from the village council’s 4-3 decision on Jan. 14 to reduce the DPW staff to two men and the unanimous vote that followed to eliminate the supervisor position, formerly held by Bill Prince, who is now simply considered a DPW employee.
‘Now, instead of someone doing the supervisor’s work, non-union staff is doing that job,? Barrett explained. ‘The MERC has ruled it should be a union position. They can reduce the supervisor to a DPW worker, but they can’t have a non-union person doing his work… This is just another way for (the village council) to circumvent the PERA.?
Barrett says Village Manager Ed Coy is assigning the work, determining the priorities, and was determining whether snow needed to be plowed, all work typically done by the DPW supervisor. ‘It’s silly to delete the supervisor,? Barrett said. ‘Those duties cannot be handed to the village manager, they are part of the supervisor’s duties.?
Barrett said an MERC hearing on the matter in front of an administrative law judge will likely be held in July or August. The union is asking that the village get in accordance with the law, which he said can be done in one of three ways: either non-union staff does not do the work; they promote Bill Prince back to supervisor; or they pay another employee in the bargaining unit to do the work.
‘We told them right from the beginning that (this action) was inappropriate and would cause problems,? Barrett said. ‘Now there will be lawyers and costs and it would have been far less expensive for the village to do it right in the beginning and not cause all this litigation….They could settle it out and be done quickly, they don’t have to force it to a hearing. I am confident they will lose.?
Coy had no comment on whether the charge had any merit, but said it was sent to the village attorney and at this point, the village had no plans regarding the charge, except to go to the hearing.