THE COUNTY OF TAZEWELL AND TAZEWELL COUNTY SHERIFF, Plaintiffs-Appellants,
v.
ILLINOIS FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE LABOR COUNCIL, Defendant-Appellee
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Appeal from the Circuit Court of the 10th Judicial Circuit, Tazewell County, Illinois. Circuit No. 13-L-68. The Honorable Paul P. Gilfillan, Judge, presiding.
Stephen M. Buck, of Quinn Johnston Henderson Pretorius & Cerulo, of Peoria, for appellants.
Robert Scott, of Illinois Fraternal Order of Police Labor Council, of Springfield, for appellee.
JUSTICE CARTER delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. Justices Holdridge and Lytton concurred in the judgment and opinion.
OPINION
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CARTER, JUSTICE.
[¶1] Plaintiffs, the County of Tazewell and the Tazewell County sheriff (collectively, the Employer), brought an action in the trial court to vacate an arbitrator's decision sustaining a grievance that defendant, the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police Labor Council (the Union), had filed over the creation of two non-bargaining-unit supervisory positions within the county sheriff's department. The trial court upheld the arbitrator's decision, sustaining the union's
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grievance. The Employer appeals. We affirm the trial court's judgment.
[¶2] FACTS
[¶3] The material facts in this case are not in dispute. The Union represented certain employees of the corrections division of the county sheriff's department. As the representative of those employees, the Union entered into a collective bargaining agreement with the Employer. The agreement addressed several different subject areas, including the scope of coverage, the creation of new positions, and the grievance procedure. As to the scope of coverage, the collective bargaining agreement provided:
" ARTICLE 1 -- RECOGNITION
Section 1.1 -- Unit Description
The Employer hereby recognizes [the Union] as the sole and exclusive collective bargaining representative for the purpose of collective bargaining on any and all matters relating to wages, hours, and all other provisions of this Agreement of employment of all officers in the bargaining unit. The bargaining unit shall include:
All correction officers below the rank of Jail Superintendent.
Exclusions: All other Employees of the Tazewell County Sheriff's Department and any others excluded by the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act. [Citations].
Section 1.2 -- Supervisors
Non-bargaining unit Supervisors may continue to perform bargaining unit work. Such work by supervisors shall not cause any layoff of the bargaining unit employees." [1]
Regarding the creation of new positions, of relevance to this appeal, the collective bargaining agreement provided:
" ARTICLE 2 -- MANAGEMENT RIGHTS
Except as specifically limited by the express provisions of this Agreement, the Employer retains traditional rights to manage all affairs of the Sheriff's Office, as well as those rights set forth in the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act. Such management rights shall include, but are not limited to, the following:
A. to plan, direct, control and determine all operations and services of the County Sheriff's Office;
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C. to establish the qualifications for employment and to decide which applicants will be employed;
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E. to hire, promote, transfer, schedule and assign employees to positions and to create, combine, modify and eliminate positions ...