Legislated Arbitration: Legality, Enforceability, and Face-Saving

• Author: Mollie H. Bowers
• Published date: 01 July 1974
• Date: 01 July 1974
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/009102607400300403
• Subject Matter: Article

LEGISLATED

ARBITRATION:

LEGALITY,

ENFORCEABILITY,

AND

FACE-SAVING

MOLLIE

H.

BOWERS

Challenges to the legality of legislated

arbitr~tion

will occur, ?ut with?ut

sting; enforcement will be successful, though lI.ttle needed;.and Its explolta-

tion as a face-saving device by both parties IS likely to continue,

Definition and Scope

Legislated arbitration is a type of binding

interest arbitration which can be defined

as follows:

1.

The

procedure is applied to a specific

set of negotiations in the public sec-

tor.

2. Resort to arbitration is required by

law as the final step in dispute settle-

ment.

3. A decision is made by the arbitrator

or panel on the issues in dispute be-

tween

the

parties.

4.

The

award issued by the arbitrator or

panel is final and bilaterally binding.

Adeliberate effort has been made to

avoid using the term "compulsory arbitra-

tion" because the term has been indiscrim-

inantly applied to as widely different sys-

tems as those existing in Australia, Penn-

sylvania, Michigan, and Canada. Further-

more, laws pertaining to arbitration are

not "compelled" upon specific interest

groups to any greater extent

than

is legis-

lation regarding civil rights, taxes, traffic

regulations, and so forth. Legislated arbi-

tration, therefore, is a leguilated method for

determining working conditions as are all

other laws enacted by Congress and by the

state legislatures to determine conditions

which affect the lives of people.'

Sixteen U.S. jurisdictions currently have

statutes providing legislated arbitration as

the

final step in dispute settlement for po-

lice

and/or

fire fighters. These jurisdictions

are: Rhode Island; Pennsylvania; Michi-

gan; Wyoming; South Dakota; Wisconsin;

Alaska; Washington

(state);

Denver, Colo-

rado; Vallejo

and

San Francisco, Califor-

nia; New York City

(all

public employees);

Minnesota; Texas;

and

Massachusetts.

Legality

The

impact of legislated arbitration on

collective bargaining and its effectiveness

in settling labor disputes are the paramount

considerations. Less significant,

but

none-

theless influential in policy making, have

been legal arguments against the proce-

dure.

The

concept of legislated arbitration

has been impugned as an abdication of rep-

resentative government and an unconstitu-

tional delegation of legislative authority to

aprivate person to set government wages

and working conditions.

Based on these arguments, there has

• Mollie H. Bowers received her Ph.D. in

collective bargaining and comparative labor

relations from Cornell University. She has been

a researcher and teaching assistant at Cornell,

a labor relations specialist with the U.S. De-

partment of Labor, and is presently a research

consultant to the International Association of

Chiefs of Police. Her book, Labor Relations in

the

Public Safety Services, was recently pub-

lished by IPMA as No. 46 in its Public Em-

ployee Relations Library.

270 PUBLIC PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT, JULY-AUGUST, 1974