Alaska Employment Law

The AAA labor arbitration panels for Alaskan employers and unions usually include Robert Landau of Anchorage and William Reeves of Ashland, Oregon.  Each has recently published an award in the BNA publication, Labor Arbitrations.  Neither award arose in Alaska.

Reassignment:  Reeves rejected the union’s grievance over the city’s reassignment of a maintenance operator.  The union had argued that the city’s past practice had limited its CBA-provided right to reassign, and that the reassignment was constructive discipline.  

City of Salem & AFSCME Local 2067, 125 LA 1317 (Reeves, W., Arb. Dec. 15, 2008)

Past practice:  Landau held that the employer violated past practice when it declined to pay overtime to police officers “assigned as Field Training Officers” when the officers had no responsibility for recruits, or when they were on vacation.  The city had previously paid OT to FTOs in each category, and had unsuccessfuly sought to amend the CBA to change the past practice. 

City of Aurora & Aurora Police Ass’n, 125 LA 769 (Landau, R., Arb. Sept. 5, 2008)