YSU will seek overturn of arbiter's ruling
YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State University will ask Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to overturn a federal arbitration ruling that granted university classified employees additional personal leave pay.
“Quite simply, there is a principle at stake here,” said Ron Chordas, interim executive director of human resources and labor relations. “This ruling ignores the agreed-upon contract between the university and its classified employees.”
The university, in a prepared statement Thursday, said it will file a motion in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court seeking to overturn the arbiter’s decision.
The ruling came in a 2004 grievance case filed by the YSU Association of Classified Employees.
The union and the university had negotiated a contract which called for ACE members to get two personal leave days each year, but the union later learned that Ohio law provides that full-time state employees are entitled to the equivalent of four days of personal leave credit payments each year.
The university statement said the union claims that its members are entitled to four additional personal days, for a total of six per year.
The union argued, and the arbiter apparently agreed, that the contract and the state statute are two distinct issues. As state employees, ACE members are entitled to that personal leave credit payment in addition to their negotiated personal days, the union said.