City of Portland v. Portland Firefighters' Assn.

The duty of the Employment Relations Board, under ORS 240.115 and 240.086(2), is to review and enforce arbitration decisions, and may, pursuant to ORS 243.676(2)(c), take action to enforce those decisions.

The City of Portland terminated a disabled employee without just cause and denied him disability benefits. Later, finding he was wrongfully terminated, the city was ordered to pay those benefits. When the employee requsted information on his pension benefits, he discovered that those were not granted during that period, despite the policy clearly stating that when the employee is receiving disability benefits, he will also receive pension benefits. The issue the City contests is whether or not they were responsible to pay him as if he were earning disability, or "service credits" at that time. In connection with a concurrently released opinion, Portland Firefighters Assn. v. City of Portland (Case no. A150768), the Court upheld the decision by Employment Relations Board to require Portland to pay his pension. Additionally, with the aforementioned connected case, The City was to fund his pension as to treat him as though he had been funded during that time they erroneously withheld pension.