Appeal of New Hampshire Retirement System
Annotate this CasePetitioner New Hampshire Retirement System (NHRS) appealed a decision of the New Hampshire Public Employee Labor Relations Board (PELRB) denying the NHRS’s petition to modify the composition of respondent Local 1984 (a bargaining unit represented by the State Employees’ Association (SEA)) to exclude from the unit certain supervisory positions. The NHRS filed its modification petition looking to exclude from the bargaining unit the Team Lead, Public Information Officer, and Controller positions on the grounds that circumstances had changed and that the positions were now supervisory within the meaning of RSA 273-A:8, II (Supp. 2014). The SEA objected to the petition to modify, arguing that the circumstances regarding those positions had not changed to a degree warranting modification of the bargaining unit and that the positions were not otherwise improperly included within the unit. Following an evidentiary hearing, a PELRB hearing officer denied the petition to modify the bargaining unit. Specifically NHRS argued that modification of the bargaining unit under the changed circumstances was mandated by RSA 273-A:8, II, which prohibited supervisors and the employees they supervise from belonging to the same bargaining unit. Upon review, the Supreme Court agreed that the change in the contested positions to “supervisors-in-fact” constituted a material change in circumstances warranting modification of the unit. The Court reversed the PELRB and remanded the case for further proceedings.
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