From the 111th Judicial District Court, Webb County
The appellee individual complained of the appellant's failure to buy back the firefighters’ unused sick leave. The dispute was submitted to arbitration. At arbitration, the appellee individual alleged the City violated the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) by suspending the sick leave buy-back program. The City claimed the CBA provision regarding the buy-back program was discretionary, and abandoned the program as it  would have been financially burdensome. The arbitrator found the CBA essentially gave the City an option to buy back the firefighters’ sick leave, however they concluded the City did not act in good faith. The arbitrator then directed the City to purchase the unused sick leave from the firefighters who elected to sell their sick leave. Both the City and the appellee individual filed motions for summary judgments in the trial court. The trial court affirmed the arbitrator’s award, and permanently enjoined the City from refusing to implement the decision. The City appealed the trial court’s judgment. The appellate court noted that the appellee's complaint alleged the City violated the CBA because of the City’s past practice of purchasing unused sick leave. The CBA stated, as did the CBA in the Port Arthur Police Ass’n, that “matters involving the interpretation, application, or alleged violation of a specific provision” would be subjected to the specified grievance procedure, and therefore, arbitration. Thus the City’s past practices of buying back the firefighters’ sick leave was an arbitrable issue. The court further found that, the CBA did not expressly state that the City’s past practice of buying back sick leave or whether the City acted in good faith could be considered. But, even if the arbitrator made a mistake of fact or misapplied the substantive law when he considered the City’s past practices, consideration of the City’s past practice drew its essence from the CBA. Accordingly, the trial court did not err by affirming the arbitrator’s award, and the trial court's judgment was affirmed.