Reference no: EM131730881

You be the Arbitrator School Bus Drivers Article VII Management Rights, Item E Maintain the efficiency of operations in the New Lebanon School District and the personnel by which such operations shall be carried out. Article VII Management Rights, Item F Exercise any other power or prerogative given it under the Revised Code of the State of Ohio or any reasonable inference to be therefrom. Article XXXI Transportation, Paragraph H All field trips shall be offered on the basis of seniority rotation as follows: There shall be two rotation lists made containing the names of all drivers in order of their seniority (those drivers only desiring to take field trips), the most senior driver being No. 1. One list will consist of daytime trips; the other after school and weekend trips. The first trip of the school year shall be assigned to driver 1. The second being assigned to driver 2 and so on. Driver 1 shall not be eligible for another field trip until all the remaining drivers have had an opportunity to take a field trip on each individual rotation list. If more than one field trip is offered on Monday (or whatever day), driver who is up for the next trip on the seniority list may have their choice of field trips; next drivers will have the same option until all trips have been exhausted. Any driver becoming eligible may have the option to refuse the trip to be passed over in favor of the less senior driver. However, the driver refusing shall not be eligible again until the rotation is complete. There will be no trading of field trips. Field trips shall be assigned to regular classified bus drivers only. In the event that the rotation has been exhausted and no regular drivers are available, the substitute drivers shall be permitted to take field trips. Only classified bus drivers that are contract drivers with the Board shall be assigned to any route or extra trips. When a field trip requires early departure and last all day or overnight, regular school bus drivers will have the option of taking the trip. The school bus drivers will drive their own bus on the trip or the best available. The Supervisor may assign any bus from the fleet to a field trip which is more than 100 miles one way. The regular bus drivers will relinquish their regular pay rate for the field-trip rate. Field trips will stay on the same rotation basis. If drivers have a field trip canceled, they will be offered the first field trip from the same list (either day or after school) as long as they do not have another field trip assigned. Should they already have a field trip assigned, they will be offered the next field trip available. Receiving the makeup trip cannot cause one to lose a trip from the normal list. Every effort will be made to provide drivers with a gas card to those assigned field trips that are beyond a 100-mile round trip. When a field trip is available and after exhausting the regular rotation field trip list and substitute list, that trip becomes an “emergency field trip” situation. Under the earlier stated guidelines, regular and/or substitute bus drivers may take the participants to the field trip event and return to the school district. At the completion of the field trip, the same driver or an alternate driver may be assigned to pick up these participants and return to the school district; the driver being paid for the time needed to accomplish this. Summer Field Trips/Summer School—For the purpose of determining the rate of pay, a summer field trip is defined as transporting students with a teacher/advisor/designee in charge, and the driver of this trip will be paid FIELD-TRIP RATE. Summer school transportation is defined as transporting students to a school or designated area where the driver has the same responsibility as transporting students to school during the regular school day (no adviser/coach/designee in charge), and the driver of this trip will be paid the REGULAR DRIVING RATE for which they are employed. Facts The employer is a public school district. In the past, the superintendent of the district had used his private van to transport students to sporting events. After the district purchased a van, the school van was used to transport students to sporting events. The union grieved the use of the van because the school bus drivers were not being used to drive the van, and the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) required the school bus drivers to drive students on any field trips. Issue Did the employer violate its CBA that requires school bus drivers to transport students on field trips when it did not require them to transport students to sporting events? Position of the Parties The school district’s position was that the CBA’s management rights clause gave the superintendent the authority to determine what vehicles to use to transport students when the trip is not a field trip. If the superintendent does not determine that a school bus should be used, then the CBA’s provision is not applicable. The CBA does not define “field trip,” so “field trip” is defined in the school district’s policy as “any planned journey by one or more students away from district premises, which is under the supervision of a professional staff member and an integral part of a course of study.” Under the district’s definition, no sporting or after-school trip is a field trip. The union’s position was that the drivers should be assigned to drive the van whenever school trips are being taken. Even though the CBA does not define “field trip,” the union does not accept the use of the definition in the district’s policy or the narrow reading of the term “field trip.” Any trip taken under the auspices of the district is a field trip for purposes of the CBA.

QUESTION

As arbitrator, what would be your award and opinion in this arbitration?

Identify the key, relevant section(s), phrases, or words of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA), and explain why they were critical in making your decision.

What actions might the employer and/or the union have taken to avoid this conflict?