NK Can Impose 56-Hour Workweeks on Firefighters, State Supreme Court Rules

Supreme Court Associate Justice Gilbert V. Indeglia has ruled that the town of North Kingstown had a legal right to implement structural changes in the fire department that resulted in 56-hour workweeks and 24-hour shifts, overturning an earlier Superior Court ruling that sided with the firefighters’ union and ordered the town to pay back wages.

In his ruling released Friday, Indeglia distilled the at-times acrimonious back-and-forth litigation that began in earnest in 2012 and wrote that “the town’s actions in implementing its decision to change into a three-platoon structure were lawful under the circumstances.”

The town had pressed for the change from a four-platoon to a three-platoon structure in as early as 2011 during arbitration after unsuccessful negotiations for a collective bargaining agreement retroactively covering 2010 to 2011. Lawyers for the town promised that the town wouldn’t seek other proposals that would structurally change the department if they got the platoon adjustment.

The arbitration panel ultimately rejected the town’s proposal, and both sides eventually began negotiations for a new contract covering 2011 and 2012, which stalled after five negotiation sessions. The North Kingstown Town Council then passed an ordinance in a 3-2 vote in March of 2012 implementing the change under the assertion that it was a management right.

The firefighters’ union filed suit in Superior Court to challenge the Town Council vote, arguing that it violated the town charter and the court agreed, voiding the ordinance.

The town appealed and that decision had been stayed pending the outcome of the Supreme Court decision released today.

In the end, Indeglia ruled that the town had the right based on legal precedent, the union’s failure to meet certain timeframe requirements for requesting arbitration and failure to timely submit unresolved issues to arbitration.

“After a review of the record and in light of our consideration of the particular circumstances that have given rise to the long and bitter conflict between these parties, we hold that the decision to implement thee three platoon structure is a management right of the town,” Indeglia wrote. “Critical to this holding is that the union had knowledge that the town had proposed to implement the three platoon structure as early as the negations and hearings before the arbitration panel for the July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011 contract year.”

Indeglia’s ruling also addressed other, unresolved matters between the town and the fire union relating to complaints filed in arbitration panels for the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 contract years.

In an effort to “tie up any loose ends,” the Supreme Court ruling suggests that all pending matters should fold into today’s ruling. Any additional litigation over the structure change would be “largely academic,” Indeglia wrote.

“The Superior Court does not need engage in needless wheel spinning to determine the outcome,” the judge wrote.

The ruling also vacates the lower court’s injunction ordering back pay and states the town is “not required to bargain with the union regarding the decision.”

The union still can, however, raise issues relating to the implementation of the new platoon structure during negotiations, Indeglia noted, and they “may submit unresolved issues regarding the effects.”

Firefighters said the structural changes have dealt a blow to morale as firefighters are being pushed to physical and psychological limits.

Read the full ruling HERE.

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This story may be updated.