IAFF, Local 3564 v. City of Grants Pass

Passage of the PECBA, which permits employees to bargain collectively with their public employers, did not nullify the ORS 652.080 mandate that firefighters’ authorized vacation or sick leave time shall be considered as time on regular duty for the purpose of calculating overtime entitlement.

ORS 652.080 requires that authorized vacation or sick leave time shall be considered as time on regular duty and therefore count toward overtime entitlement. The dispute in this case was whether the Public Employees Collective Bargaining Act (PECBA), passed in 1973, allowed the parties to bargain for and agree to a method of calculating overtime that violated ORS 652.080. The parties entered into a collective bargaining agreement that did not require the City to include authorized vacation and sick time to calculate overtime eligibility, nor did the agreement prohibit the city from doing so. The Union petitioned the Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) for a declaratory ruling, and BOLI concluded that the PECBA did not allow the parties to bargain away firefighters’ rights under ORS 652.080. The City appealed, seeking reversal, and after review for errors of law the Court upheld BOLI’s declaratory ruling because the plain text of the PECBA did not create an exception to ORS 652.080; there existed no indication that the Legislature meant to repeal or alter existing law when it enacted the PECBA; and conflicting statutory provisions are to be resolved so as to give effect to both provisions. Affirmed.