COLUMBIANA COUNTY Jail workers' back pay is debated at hearing

The sides are arguing over the interpretation of an arbitrator's decision.
LISBON -- Legal wrangling over the 1997 layoffs of Columbiana County jail workers is continuing.
During a hearing Wednesday in county common pleas court, attorneys representing the county and the furloughed workers said they continue to disagree on issues that have been fought in court since 1997.
The workers, represented by the Fraternal Order of Police, want the county to abide by a 1997 arbitrator's award that stipulates that the nearly 42 workers must be reinstated with back pay.
Time frames: FOP Atty. Paul Cox said Wednesday he interprets the back-pay period as being from February 1997 until the workers are actually rehired, whenever that may be.
But the county, represented by Atty. Walter Lucas of an Akron law firm, argues that the arbitrator's decision involves back pay only from February 1997 through December 1997.
Back pay is limited to that period because the county abolished virtually all its corrections workers jobs in December 1997 to coincide with privatization of the county jail, the county argues.
There are no jobs for which the furloughed workers can be rehired, the county insists.
High court: The matter is back in county common pleas court after a decision by the Ohio Supreme Court in September.
County officials had wanted the state high court to hear their appeal of a 7th District Court decision in May that upheld the 1997 arbitrator's decision regarding the laid-off workers.
The state Supreme Court said it would not hear the county's appeal because it raised no constitutional questions.