IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO
TENTH APPELLATE DISTRICT
Anne O'Connell Null,
:
Plaintiff-Appellant,
:
v.
:
No. 99AP-523
Ohio Department of Mental Retardation
:
(REGULAR CA LENDAR)
and Developmental Disabilities et al.,
:
Defendants-Appellees.
:
_________________________________________________
O P I N I O N
Rendered on March 28, 2000
_________________________________________________
Michael A. Moses, for appellant.
Betty D. Montgomery, Attorney General, Jack W. Decker and
Kevin L. Murch, for appellees.
_________________________________________________
APPEAL from the Franklin County Court of Common Ple as.
BRYANT, J.
Plaintiff-appellant, Anne O’Connell Null, appeals
from judgment of the
Franklin County Court of Common Pleas granting the
summary judgment motion of
defendant-appellee, Ohio Department of Mental Retar dation and Developmental
Disabilities (“ODMRDD”).
At all time pertinent, plaintiff was a Licensure
Specialist with ODMRDD and
was paid an hourly wage. Her position was included
in the bargaining unit represented by
No. 99AP-523
2
District 1199, Service Employees International Unio n. Claiming defendant had violated
relevant law in failing to pay her overtime compens ation, plaintiff filed grievances under
the collective bargaining agreement the union enter ed into with defendant. Pursuant to a
settlement between District 1199 and ODMRDD, plaint iff received $3,000 for travel
expenses incurred and a credit for one hundred fift y hours of compensatory time.
On July 22, 1997, plaintiff filed a complaint in
the common pleas court,
alleging defendant violated the Fair Labor Standard s Act (“FLSA”) and the Ohio Minimum
Fair Wage Standards Act, R.C. Chapter 4111, in deny ing plaintiff overtime compensation.
The trial court concluded it lacked subject matter
jurisdiction to adjudicate the case,
finding exclusive jurisdiction in the Ohio Court of Claims. On appeal, this court affirmed
the judgment of the trial court insofar as it found
the Court of Claims had exclusive
jurisdiction over plaintiff's FLSA claim, but it re manded the case to the trial court for
consideration of plaintiff's state law claim. Null v. Ohio Dept. of Mental Retardation & Dev.
Disabilities (June 30, 1998), Franklin App. No. 97APE11-1565, un reported.
On remand, defendant again filed a summary judgmen t motion, premised
this time on two arguments: (1) defendant's liabili ty for overtime is determined under R.C.
124.18, not R.C. 4111.03 as alleged in plaintiff's
complaint, and (2) pursuant to R.C.
4117.10(A), the agreement to arbitrate in the colle ctive bargaining agreement bars
plaintiff's claims. On April 6, 1999, the trial cou rt issued a decision granting defendant's
motion for summary judgment. The court concluded th at R.C. 4117.10(A) controls
No. 99AP-523
3
plaintiff's claim, leaving the trial court without jurisdiction due to the arbitration clause in
the collective bargaining agreement.
Plaintiff appeals, assigning the following errors:
I. THE COMMON PLEAS COURT ERRED IN GRANTING
SUMMARY JUDGMENT FOR APPELLEE.
II. THE COMMON PLEAS COURT ERRED IN FINDING
O.R.C. SEC. 4117.10 (A) PREVAILS OVER THE OHIO FAIR
MINIMUM WAGE STANDARDS ACT, O.R.C. SEC. 4111.01,
ET SEQ.
Plaintiff’s two assignments of error are interrela ted and will be addressed
jointly. Together they assert that the trial court
erroneously concluded that the collective
bargaining agreement's arbitration clause rendered the trial court without jurisdiction over
plaintiff's state law claims. Accordingly, we are a sked to determine which prevails in
determining jurisdiction over plaintiff's claim und er R.C. 4111.03: the collective bargaining
agreement and its binding arbitration clause, or R. C. Chapter 4111 pursued through an
action in the common pleas court.
R.C. 4117.10(A) establishes the relationship betwe en the provisions of a
collective bargaining agreement and state laws. It provides:
An agreement between a public employer and an exclu sive
representative entered into pursuant to this chapte r governs
the wages, hours, and terms and conditions of publi c
employment covered by the agreement. If the agreeme nt
provides for a final and binding arbitration of gri evances,
public employers, employees, and employee organizat ions
are subject solely to that grievance procedure and
the state
personnel board of review or civil service commissi ons have
no jurisdiction to receive and determine any appeal s relating
to matters that were the subject of a final and bin ding
No. 99AP-523
4
grievance procedure. Where no agreement exists or
where
an agreement makes no specification about a matter,
the
public employer and public employees are subject to
all
applicable state or local laws or ordinances pertai ning to the
wages, hours, and terms and conditions of employmen t for
public employees. *** [T]his chapter prevails over any and all
other conflicting laws, resolutions, provisions, pr esent or
future, except as otherwise specified in this chapt er or as
otherwise specified by the general assembly. ***
Pursuant to R.C. 4117.10(A) when no state or local
law addresses a
matter addressed in a collective bargaining agreeme nt, no conflict exists between the
agreement and the law, and the agreement governs th e parties as to that matter.
Streetsboro Edn. Assoc. v. Streetsboro City School Dist. Bd. of Edn. (1994), 68 Ohio
St.3d 288. Conversely, when a collective bargaining agreement does not address a
matter but a state or local law does, again no conf lict arises: pursuant to R.C.
4117.10(A) state or local law generally would apply to a public employer and its public
employees regarding "wages, hours and terms and con ditions" of employment. Id. at
291. When, however, a state or local law pertaining
to a specific exception listed in
R.C. 4117.10(A) conflicts with a provision in a col lective bargaining agreement
addressing the same matter, the law prevails and th e provision of the collective
bargaining agreement is unenforceable. Id. If the conflict does not pertain to one of the
specific exceptions listed in R.C. 4117.10(A), then the collective bargaining agreement
prevails. Id.
Here Article 24 is not silent on the issue of over
time compensation, but
rather states: "*** Employees shall receive compens atory time or overtime pay for
No. 99AP-523
5
authorized work performed in excess of forty (40) h ours per week. ***" R.C. 4111.03
also addresses overtime compensation and provides t hat: "An employer shall pay an
employee for overtime at a wage rate of one and one -half times the employee's wage
rate for hours worked in excess of forty hours in o ne workweek, in the manner and
methods provided in and subject to the exemptions o f section 7 and section 13 of the
'Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938,' 52 Stat. 1060,
29 U.S.C.A. 207, 213, as amended."
The provision of the collective bargaining agreeme nt thus not only
addresses but conflicts with the terms of R.C. 4111 .03. While R.C. 4111.03 requires an
employer to provide for overtime compensation in th e manner prescribed by the FLSA,
the collective bargaining agreement does not. Altho ugh the agreement requires the
additional hours to be “authorized,” R.C. 4111.03 d oes not specifically require
authorization. While R.C. 4111.03(A) requires overt ime compensation for "hours
worked" in excess of forty, the collective bargaini ng agreement requires overtime
compensation for "hours in active pay status" great er than forty. Given the conflict, the
bargaining agreement prevails unless one of the exc eptions in R.C. 4117.10(A) applies.
Because R.C. 4117.10(A) does not list R.C. 4111.03
or the matter of overtime
compensation as an exception, the collective bargai ning agreement with its arbitration
provision prevails. S treetsboro, supra.
Plaintiff nonetheless asserts that pursuant to
Naylor v. Cardinal Local
School Dist. Bd. of Edn . (1994), 69 Ohio St.3d 162, a collective bargainin g agreement
No. 99AP-523
6
does not deprive an employee of independent statuto ry rights unless that particular right
has been specifically excluded or negated by the ag reement.
Naylor acknowledged the Ohio Supreme Court's holding that a provision
of a collective bargaining agreement may prevail ov er a conflicting statute. Relying,
however, on State ex rel. Clark v. Greater Cleveland Regional T ransit Auth. (1990), 48
Ohio St.3d 19, Naylor held that unless a collective bargaining agreement "specifically
provides to the contrary, R.C. 3319.111 governs the evaluation of a teacher employed
under a limited contract." Naylor, paragraph two of the syllabus.
Naylor is not dispositive here. Initially, by its syllabus language Naylor is
confined to determining whether R.C. 3319.111 is re ndered ineffective under R.C.
4117.10(A) by the terms of a collective bargaining agreement. Moreover, the rationale
of Naylor is premised, at least in part, on the fact that th e collective bargaining
agreement was entered into before the effective dat e of R.C. 3319.111. Here, R.C.
4111.03 pre-existed the collective bargaining agree ment. Finally, to accept plaintiff's
interpretation of Naylor at the least would modify the test set forth in
Streetsboro, yet
Naylor does not overrule or modify Streetsboro.
Further, Clark, relied on in Naylor, is unlike the issue here. In Clark, the
statute and the collective bargaining agreement did not conflict because the collective
bargaining agreement did not specifically address t he matter at issue in Clark. It thus
did not negate the statutory rights. Here, by contr ast, the collective bargaining
agreement does address overtime compensation in muc h the same fashion as R.C.
No. 99AP-523
7
4111.03, and thus conflicts with R.C. 4111.03. Unde r Streetsboro, because R.C.
4111.03 is not specifically excepted by R.C. 4117.1 0(A), the collective bargaining
agreement prevails.
R.C. 4117.10(A) further states that if the labor a greement provides for
final and binding arbitration, then employers, empl oyees, and labor unions are subject
solely to that grievance procedure as set forth in
the labor contract. Section 7.07(F) of
the collective bargaining agreement at issue provid es for final and binding arbitration.
Albright v. Jackson (May 15, 1990), Franklin App. No. 89AP-1215, unrep orted; see,
also, MacKnight v. Lake Cty. Dept. of Human Serv. (1995), 107 Ohio App.3d 181;
Cook v. Maxwell (1989), 57 Ohio App.3d 131. Accordingly, the trial
court properly
concluded it lacked jurisdiction over plaintiff's c laims under R.C. 4111.03.
For the foregoing reasons, plaintiff's two assignm ents of error are
overruled, and the judgment of the trial court is a ffirmed.
Judgment affirmed.
BOWMAN, P.J., and TYACK, J., concur.
___________