HOUSTON — The Fourteenth Court of Appeals in Texas has upheld the 127th District Court's ruling that confirmed an arbitration award in favor of the Houston Professional Firefighters Association, Local 341 and dismissed the city's declaratory judgement action that appealed such an award. The opinion was filed by Justice Charles Spain in March.
An arbitrator was brought in to decide a grievance filed by the Association when the Houston Fire Department terminated several permanent, non-probationary firefighters who failed to get their paramedic certifications. The City and the Association have a collective bargaining agreement, or CBA, which in it has a clause to arbitrate certain disagreements.
The City of Houston had argued the trial court in Harris County, Texas made a mistake when it granted the Association's motion for summary judgement because the arbitrator lacked jurisdiction because their grievance was untimely, exceeded her jurisdiction by making a decision on a question that was not brought before her, modified the law and terms of a collective bargaining agreement that was at issue, and exceeded her authority by ordering that three firefighters be reinstated.
The City argued that the Association first knew about the underlying facts of the grievance in October 2014, but didn't file the grievance until January 2015, which was past the 30-day window to file. However, the CBA, in their agreement, tasked the arbitrator with interpreting and applying it's terms, which is why the appeals court concluded she did not exceed her authority on the timelines issue.
For it's third issue, the city claimed that Local Government Chapter 143 does not provide a right to administrative appeal to a firefighter who was fired for not meeting employment requirements, and that the arbitrator modified state law by deciding otherwise. The Court found the arbitrator based her award on the same CBA violation previously mentioned, since working conditions changed which was within her ability to do so.
As for the reinstatement issue, it was also overruled, since in the CBA it does not prohibit reinstatement as a remedy so the arbitrator did not exceed her authority in ordering the terminated employees to be brought back on the job.