MAHONING COUNTY YSU loses appeal on workers' education program

The sides disputed whether the program was ever actually in place.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A Mahoning County judge has sided with a state panel that said Youngstown State University violated Ohio labor law by eliminating a program that allowed employees to take continuing-education classes during work hours.
Judge James C. Evans of common pleas court ruled that the university should not have done away with the program without going through the collective bargaining process.
J. Russell Keith, general counsel for the State Employment Relations Board, said SERB wants the program to be reinstated, but the university can appeal Judge Evans' decision to the 7th District Court of Appeals.
YSU spokesman Ron Cole said neither university officials nor their legal counsel had received a copy of Judge Evans' decision, which was handed down Thursday.
"Once we see it, we will review it and the university will decide at that point how to proceed," Cole said.
About the program
The Employee Certification Program at YSU was initiated in 1999, under the administration of then-university President Leslie Cochran, to allow employees in the Association of Classified Employees union to earn certificates in certain areas. The employees were permitted to attend classes during work hours without losing pay.
In March 2002, after Cochran had left and current university President Dr. David Sweet had taken over, the university informed the union that the program would not go forward because of a lack of resources.
According to Vindicator files, the union and university were in the process of negotiating terms of the program when it was cut. The union filed a complaint in June 2002, arguing that the program should not have been eliminated without collective bargaining.
An administrative law judge ruled in March 2003 that YSU's action constituted an unfair labor practice, and SERB ordered the university to reinstate the program.
"Our remedy had been to return to the status quo since the administrative law judge decided that the program had been in effect," Keith said.
Appealed ruling
The university appealed SERB's ruling to common pleas court, arguing that the program was never technically in effect because it hadn't yet been negotiated into place.
Magistrate Timothy G. Welsh held in July 2004 that there was evidence to support that the program was implemented in the fall of 1999. Because it affected employees' wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment, the program became a mandatory subject of collective bargaining under Ohio's labor law so should not have been eliminated without negotiation, Welsh ruled.
The university filed objections to Welsh's decision, which was then reviewed by Judge Evans before his ruling this week.
Judge Evans ruled that YSU announced the program to employees through a campus publication in 1999.
bjackson@vindy.com