Supreme Court decision: Juvenile Court’s disputes with union must go to arbitration

Court News Ohio

Disputes regarding the two collective bargaining agreements between the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court’s Juvenile Division and its union employees must go to arbitration, the Supreme Court of Ohio ruled today.

In a unanimous opinion, the Supreme Court affirmed the Eighth District Court of Appeals decision that directed that the legal matter between the juvenile court and  Laborers’ International Union of North America, Local 860, must go to arbitration rather than be settled in court.

Juvenile Court Administrative Judge Thomas O’Malley initiated lawsuits in 2020 to declare that Local 860’s two collective bargaining agreements with the court ended in December 2019. The union counterclaimed, alleging that the juvenile court had breached the contracts and it moved to compel arbitration under the terms of the contracts.

Writing for the Supreme Court, Justice Patrick F. Fischer explained that each contract contained a provision stating that the parties agreed to arbitrate disputes between the court and the union regarding the interpretation, application, or compliance with the contract's express provisions. The juvenile court’s claims that the contracts were terminated or could not be extended beyond 2019 are questions of interpretation and the application of the terms of the contract, he wrote.

“Here, the arbitration clauses cover the disputes in question, and the trial court therefore erred in failing to order the parties to proceed to arbitration,” he stated.